TORONTO — Porter Airlines is boosting its Ottawa network by increasing capacity on eight routes.

Service from Ottawa to Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary will increase to twice-daily service on Porter’s E195-E2s. Kevin Jackson, EVP and CCO says these additional flights are occurring less than a year after their respective launches.

Porter is also doubling service from one daily roundtrip flight to two daily flights between Ottawa and Fredericton, Moncton and Boston. Service to New York will increase to three daily roundtrip flights from two. The routes are operated on Porter’s 78-seat Dash 8-400s.

And as reported earlier this week, the Ottawa-Halifax route will see an increase in seat capacity when the route, currently operated with Dash 8-400s, switches to the larger E195-E2s in April 2024.

“Ottawa is a key part of our Eastern Canada network and our presence at the airport will continue to grow,” said Jackson.

Porter’s overall commitment to Ottawa includes building two new aircraft hangars totalling 150,000 square-feet which will be the primary maintenance base for the E195-E2 fleet and support maintenance of the Dash 8-400 aircraft. The first phase of the hangar will be complete this year.

Porter operates up to 35 daily departures and 15 nonstop routes from Ottawa, including the most recent addition of Ottawa-Winnipeg.

Also this week, in an interview with newswire service The Canadian Press, Porter CEO Michael Deluce assessed the Canadian airline industry: “I don’t believe that the traction’s there for the multitude of [ultra low-cost carriers] that are in the market.”