New daily flights to California from Pearson Airport in Mississauga are on the way

Daily flights to California’s two largest cities from Pearson Airport in Mississauga will soon take off courtesy of a Toronto-based airline that began flying out of Pearson earlier this year.

Porter Airlines, which previously ran its passenger planes exclusively out of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport before announcing last December its new relationship with Pearson, will launch daily round-trip flights between Pearson and both Los Angeles and San Francisco beginning in January 2024.

Porter officials said in a news release this week that the latest additions to its schedule mark the first two western U.S. destinations for the carrier.

Daily service between Pearson and Los Angeles begins next Jan. 16 while San Francisco will be added to the mix on Jan. 25.

The new routes will be operated by the Embraer E195-E2 aircraft, airline officials note, featuring a 132-seat, all-economy, two-by-two configuration.

“There are no middle seats on any Porter flight,” officials with the carrier say.

“Our arrival in California will be welcomed by those looking for a new way to travel between the west coast and Canada,” said Kevin Jackson, Porter’s executive vice-president and chief commercial officer, in the news release.

Officials at both Los Angeles and San Francisco airports said they’re looking forward to the new relationship between their destinations and Porter Airlines.

“This service offers San Francisco Bay Area travellers an exciting new way to Canada and reflects our own commitment to making travel more sustainable,” said Ivar C. Satero, airport director at San Francisco International Airport.

Passengers flying out of Los Angeles “…will now have more choices to fly nonstop to Toronto, the second-most popular destination in Canada from LAX and the seventh-most popular international destination,” added Michael Christensen, chief operations and maintenance officer at Los Angeles World Airports (LAX).

Porter, which is rapidly expanding its list of destinations, announced two weeks ago that it’s now offering one flight each day between Pearson and Victoria, B.C.

In February of this year, the carrier kicked off nonstop daily service to Vancouver to begin its operations out of Pearson.

Earlier last month, the carrier announced a pair of new Canadian destinations: St. John’s (Newfoundland and Labrador) and Winnipeg.

Porter, which added significantly to its fleet with the introduction earlier this year of 50 new “state-of-the-art” Embraer E195-E2 aircraft, then further expanded its list of Canadian destinations from Pearson when it introduced flights to Edmonton (Feb. 14), Calgary (Feb. 22) and Halifax (Feb. 23).

Porter officials said earlier that the company’s recent moves position the carrier to compete head-to-head with Canada’s largest airlines, Air Canada and WestJet.

Porter has as many as an additional 100 E195-E2 aircraft on order, providing the ability to operate throughout North America including destinations across Canada, the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean, the company noted earlier.