Porter Airlines launches new direct flight from Ottawa to Victoria

Operations on the new route connecting the two capitals are expected to be scaled up over the summer.

Porter Airlines has begun operating a new direct flight between two capital cities, just in time for peak summer travel – arriving at Victoria International Airport ahead of schedule for its inaugural flight from Ottawa.

“I was very pleased with it,” says Porter Airlines passenger Steve Nichol. “I think it’s very important. It’s so convenient.”

The Victoria Airport Authority, tourism partners and firefighters hosted an official welcome for the new service Thursday – spraying an archway of water into the air for the plane to travel through on the taxiway.

“This is the welcome spray. It’s like going through a car wash,” says Porter Airlines passenger, Andrew Dingley.

“It was great because we had planned to go somewhere else. But then after Mr. Trump decided to do Trump stuff, we came to Victoria instead because it was a direct flight.”

Porter’s new cross-Canada service between YOW and YYJ has four weekly roundtrips to start. The airline plans to increase to daily roundtrips on June 16.

“This is great to have a new airline like this who only started launching services into Victoria in October 2023 show such great confidence in our market,” says Victoria Airport Authority president and CEO, Elizabeth Brown.

“Whenever an airline shows confidence in a market, all the other airlines sit up and take notice and they can see that Victoria has a lot of unserved routes here with great potential.”

According to Brown, Porter’s arriving flight from Ottawa was full with 130 passengers and the airport authority anticipates the trend will continue, offering gains to the local economy.

“We’re confident having this direct connection to the nation’s capital is going to be really helpful in keeping Greater Victoria as a competitive destination for meetings, conferences and business events – as well as tourism on the South Island as a whole,” says Destination Greater Victoria’s executive director of corporate communications, Astrid Chang.

“So we’re really happy to see this get going today.”