The city of North Bay and Porter Airlines announced today that the two have reached a five-year agreement which will see the discount flyer starting flights out of North Bay on October 7th.
The announcement came at 10:45 Tuesday morning in the lobby of Jack Garland Airport in front of a large crowd.
North Bay will become the 23rd destination for the Canadian Airline based out of Billy Bishop Airport in downtown Toronto.
North Bay Mayor Al McDonald says negotiations to bring Porter here have been in the works for the past four years.
He says four years of hard work has paid off today.
"The previous council agreed to expand the airport with partners from the Heritage Fund and the Airport Board, once we had the terminal expansion complete it really opened the flood gates to attract a second carrier and Porter was on our list and after four long years we were able to put it together," said McDonald.
Robert Deluce, Porter Airlines President and Chief Executive was at the press conference Tuesday morning.
He says the days of North Bayites paying $1300 for a flight to Toronto are over.
"This is going to be a great connection to downtown Toronto and of course an equally good connection to flights to Timmins so all around two good additional routes that I think will benefit those who live and work in the area," said Deluce.
"I think it shows if you allow affordable fares along with good service that it doesn’t take them very much to abandon their three or four-hour road trip and actually get on the aircraft so increasingly we have found that with proper pricing the number of passengers goes up significantly and everybody is a winner as a result of it."
Deluce stated the starting prices for return flights to Toronto or even Timmins will be roughly $220 not including tax, with one-way flights going for around $105 without tax.
Guests at the press conference along with members of the local media were also taken on a tour of the modern Canadian made Bombardier Q400 74-seat airliner which will be calling North Bay home in October.
To check out all the Porter Airlines destinations click here: https://www.flyporter.com/Flights-To?culture=en-CA
