A ‘golden’ time to fly between Tampa and Canada?
A long-awaited plane model launched its first commercial stop to a U.S. city: Tampa.
The debut of the Embraer E195-E2 — sleeker and smaller than most commercial jets — was made possible through Porter Airlines, a regional Canadian airline with ambitions to grow its network across the continent.
A handful of plane spotters at Tampa International Airport had an invite to get a first look at the new kind of plane before the carrier launched service between Tampa and Toronto on Saturday. They brought their cameras to the tarmac to take shots of its engine, wings and the plane’s most notable feature: no middle seats.
Porter is flying to Florida thanks to the power of these jets. It’s adding service between Canada and five cities across the state, including Tampa. Its first flight to the area was sold out.
But Porter is not the only Canadian airline with an eye on the region.
A competitor, “ultra low-cost” Lynx Air, is also launching flights to the Tampa Bay area for the first time this month. Meanwhile, WestJet is expanding its Tampa connections to more Canadian cities, including Calgary and Hamilton.
As international travel took longer to rebound from the pandemic, the airport is gearing up for an influx of travel with Florida’s biggest market outside the U.S. By early spring next year, Tampa International Airport said it will have more airlines, nonstop flights and seats to Canada than it’s ever had before.
For people wanting to book flights to Toronto, “now is a golden moment,” said Christopher Minner, the airport’s executive vice president of marketing and communications, who’s responsible for recruiting new airlines. “You’re probably going to find some really wonderful opportunities.”
The number of Canadians flying to Florida during the first quarter of 2023 nearly matched pre-pandemic levels, according to data from Visit Florida, the state’s tourism arm.
This comeback took a while to manifest, but when it did, it came quickly.
At the beginning of this year, the airport had three nonstop flights to Montreal a week through Air Canada. By the start of 2024, there will be 17.
Tampa Bay and Canada have always had a strong ties, thanks to seasonal snowbirds and sports team connections — such as with the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin. But the pandemic brought international travel to a near halt. The number of Canadian visitors to Florida was slow to get back to pre-pandemic levels like other markets, but demand is rapidly returning.
In a yearlong span, the airport calculated that Tampa would have increased the total number of flights to Canada by 66%.
“What we’re seeing is that as we all are recovering from COVID, Canada was one of the markets that took the longest to recover,” Minner said. “And now people are coming back with a vengeance.”
Not only is Canadian travel coming back, Minner said the airport is gearing up for it to be stronger due to foreign investment pouring in during the pandemic, more Canadians buying property in Tampa Bay’s hot housing market and the rise of remote work.
And it’s not just Tampa Bay. It’s all of Florida, said Brad Cicero, Porter’s director of communications.
“We flew here once before with our old aircraft into Melbourne (Orlando International Airport), and that was just some select seasonal service a couple of days a week,” Cicero said. “But this is really a whole different value proposition when it comes to this aircraft: the ability to bring 100 passengers every day.”
Tampa will have connections to seven Canadian cities: Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Hamilton, Halifax and St. John’s.
Toronto — the biggest Canadian market for Tampa — will have four airlines offering service: Porter, Lynx, Air Canada and WestJet.
For the new airlines to Tampa, Lynx Airlines operates on the “ultra low-cost” model, like Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines. Meanwhile, Porter is trying to “elevate” the economy experience with its no middle seats, more leg room and free Wi-Fi and booze on flights.
With more seat capacity than ever, Minner said there’s a higher chance for lower ticket prices.
“It’s almost 300 passengers per day each way that are traveling right now between Tampa International Airport and Toronto,” Minner said. “We think that’s a market that can continue to grow, so we’re very, very excited.”
