Review of Porter Airlines flight from Hamilton to Edmonton in Economy

Who are Porter?

Porter Airlines has been a staple of Canadian air travel for 20 years and has grown into the third largest airline in the country behind Air Canada and WestJet, but ahead of Air Transat and the regional airlines operating the Northern Territories!

For many years, Porter Airlines operated solely a fleet of Bombardier Dash 8 Q-400 based out of Toronto City "Billy Bishop" Airport. This was mainly because the airline found a niche with Toronto Pearson being a massive bustling hub for its main competitors Air Canada, WestJet and Air Transat… but in the late 2010s that all changed!

The airline in the early half of the 2010s tried to order the Bombardier CS-100 (now known as the Airbus A220-100), but regulators prevented the airline from operating them out of Toronto City… Years later- the airline made a deal with Embraer to order the Embraer E2-195 and they began to use them for new bases at Toronto Pearson and Ottawa International as well as allowing the airline to expand operations further into the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean… The airline has also started expanding into Hamilton Airport in Ontario with regular year around services to Vancouver, Halifax, Edmonton and Calgary with new seasonal routes being introduced to Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale.

I wasn't able to work a flight out of Toronto City on my trip to Canada, but I was able to set myself a flight with Porter Airlines to Alberta which also allowed me a flight experience on the Embraer E-2, an aircraft type I had only flown once before, so this would be an amazing opportunity!

Flying from Hamilton Airport!

After spending the day at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, I walked from the Museum across to the Terminal at Hamilton International Airport. It was not the safest walking route as I had to walk on the side of the road- but I at least got to see some Boeing 767 cargo aircraft parked up as I wouldn't get to see them from inside the Airport!

Hamilton International Airport is named after John C. Munro (1931-2003), who was a Canadian MP who served Hamilton East from June 1962 to June 1984. He also served five different Minister positions under the Premiership of the 15th Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

At the time of flying in November 2025 only WestJet and Porter Airlines offer regular passenger flights in or out of Hamilton International Airport. Air Canada offers a unique Coach service to Toronto Pearson Airport as a "connecting flight" for onward flying. CargoJet and Amazon Air have Cargo Airline services from Hamilton Airport.

International services to Europe are a historic part of Hamilton Airport, with the most recent attempt being made my Icelandic PLAY Airlines, but other historic services to the UK have occurred with Wardair Canada and the disgraced Nationair… I think WestJet could pull off a seasonal service to London Gatwick with their Boeing 737-MAX fleet, but we shall see…

I had checked in online, but as I was on a Basic Fare, I had to see a check in agent to ensure my bag was good for the flight… I'll confess it was a bit overloaded- but it was a ruck sack that I could easily fit under the seat in front of me, and I was given a boarding pass and not charged extra! After that was dealt with, it was a quick walk over to the security check point, which was quiet as I'd been dealt with first and was early to check in, the WestJet flight to Calgary's passengers had already gone through security, so I was through in less than five minutes!

Hamilton International Airport is a small airside space with a small bar, a Tim Horton's café, a newsagent shop and a seating area. Three gates leading to remote stands means the Airport can only handle three aircraft at one time for boarding. I went to the bar for a quick beer before the flight, though I didn't get any photos of the area as it was quite busy with the other customers from this flight all coming to the same area.

Eventually, boarding began for our four hour flight across Central Canada. We started boarding around 19:30pm to get us ready for an on time departure for 19:55pm. Luckily the E2-195 only carries just over 100 passengers, so it wouldn't be too crazy a boarding procedure. I spoke to two passengers also going to Edmonton and they were excited to enjoy flying Porter Airlines from Hamilton rather than rely on flying from Toronto Pearson (or Billy Bishop Airport) with Air Canada and WestJet as it would appear Canadian's in Ontario view Toronto the same way a lot of Brit's view London!

Flying the Porter E2-195

Our Embraer E2-195 flying our Porter Airlines service was C-GKQJ, delivered in December 2022 and only two years old at the time of flying. When the plane was only 7 months old it involved in an incident in July 2023 when smoke filled the forward cabin causing an emergency landing which took the plane out of service until October 2023… Spoiler alert- I'm happy to report that there was no inflight emergencies on this flight!

As is common in the US and Canada for open boardings, Hamilton Airport and Porter Airlines use this weird looking ramp. We don't see these often in the UK, but my local airport at Bournemouth does use these for the rear doors on their flights. Oddly I noticed only the forward door was being used for boarding and not the rear door- which is something I am often accustomed to seeing in Europe and the UK.

I was surprised how nice the cabin looked on this Porter Airlines E2-195, if this is their ERJ cabin- I can only thing how good the Dash 8 Q-400 seats are compared to the old Flybe ones! The seats were in a 2x2 layout which is standard on the Embraer ERJ family, the seats are in a grey colour with black head rest covers and adjustable head rests. I had no issues with legroom on my flight and as a bonus, I had the row to myself as Seat 17B wasn't occupied despite the flight looking a good c.80% full… I pre-paid for a Window Seat for filming and photographing purposes, I wasn't expecting to see much out the window on an all-night flight!

We pushed back for an on time departure, we had a short taxi around the Airport, but we had a chance to pass some of the Cargo aircraft parked up and awaiting their overnight missions transporting freight and mail across Canada, the USA & further afield!

Our departure saw us take off from Runway 30, as we climbed out we made a North-West turn to put us on course for Edmonton. I was on the wrong side to see any of Hamilton, however as we climbed away I could see Brantford as we climbed away heading towards Lake Huron.

It wasn't long before the Porter Wi-Fi was activated and we could use the internet. Now you can get free unlimited Wi-Fi if you pay for the privilege or have the Porter frequent flyer program. Personally I don't need to sign up for this as I don't live in Canada or fly Porter regularly, so I opted for the second option of having internet in 30 minute stages but having to endure adverts to activate it… I didn't mind it too much on this flight, it was only 4 hours and I only ended up using 3x 30 minute sessions during the flight.

The flight got off to a good start. Before the lights were dimmed for the flight, the crew kept them on to do the initial inflight service.

Porter Airlines still offers an inflight magazine which they brand as "Re:Porter", the edition on my flight was the 100th edition of the magazine, a separate menu was also provided. My favourite bit of the magazine was seeing the Porter Route Map and the Fleet Page!

Of course, both the café menu and magazine were written in dual English-French, a common practice in Canada.

As I had a late arrival into Edmonton Airport and wasn't expecting my hotel to be near to a restaurant or bar- I opted to enjoy some form of dinner on the aircraft as I'd gone to the Airport straight from the Aviation Museum. I chose to enjoy the Chicken and Mango rice bowl, it was served cold as the Embraer's don't have ovens in the galley, this might not appeal to some people- but it was still delicious! It wasn't too bad value either at CA/$15 (£8).

A few minutes later the main snack service, I opted for the almonds, came through with drinks from the bar, I opted to enjoy a cola with a Moosehead Larger beer in one of the famous Porter Glassware… I was so tempted to "accidently" drop that glass into my bag! Porter provides soft drinks, beer and wine complimentary on their flights, but spirits & pre-mixed cocktails can be purchased.

After the main snack service was finished, the crew dimmed the lights and enabled the classy blue mood lighting for the next 90 minutes of the flight before they did a secondary service. I quite liked this cabin lighting! A USB port in the bottom of the seats allowed me to charge my phone up a bit as well.

I did get out my seat to use the facilities, which allowed me a chance to get a photo for a "Loo Review" for the report. A very modern looking washroom (or toilet, should I say), it wasn't too tight for space given we were on a larger Regional Jet, but there wasn't much to brag about… Though I was alone in the galley for a few minutes and spotted the screen with all the "Bells and Whistles", so I thought I'd grab a quick photo of that… I elected not to try out the features on the screen as it would probably irritate the flight attendants!

I noticed that Porter's menu had a few ready made cocktails on offer for purchase for CA/$8 (£4.30) and I noticed one of the offerings was an Old Fashioned, one of my favourite drinks! I'd never had one of these one a plane before, so this seemed like a fitting excuse to enjoy one and despite it being a pre-mixed drink from a bottle, it was quite nice and I enjoyed it whilst relaxing as we flew across New Brunswick and Saskatchewan! 

Whilst a Porter Glass wasn't going to be coming home to the UK with me, I was given three of the little "Racoon Stirrers" to take as souvenirs!

About 70 minutes before our scheduled landing time another drinks and snack round was done, I opted to get a cup of tea with the cookies, but the cabin crew member I'd been talking to in the flight, as well as getting the extra Racoon Stirrers from, also gave me the cheddar peanuts as well, which I took for the road!

Eventually we started our arrival into Edmonton, our decent took us on a route that saw us commencing our arrival as we flew over Rolly View, we then made a turn around the town of Beaumont, just missing flying over the city of Edmonton itself before lining up for arrival on Runway 20.

Once we landed and taxied off the Runway, we passed a remote area which Air North uses as its base at Edmonton Airport for its aircraft that provide essential cargo and airlinks to the Northern Territories from Alberta. We then pulled into the Terminal on the wing that caters mainly to the ultra-budget airlines at Edmonton Airport, our Porter Embraer parking amongst a few Flair Airlines Boeing 737s.

It would turn out that we had arrived twenty minutes earlier than planned, which was great as it meant I had a bit more time to get sorted out in getting to my hotel. It didn't take long to find the domestic arrival area from our gate.

Once I left the airport, I had a 15 minute wait in -11 degrees temperatures for a Hotel Shuttle bus which took me to the Super 8 Motel just off the Edmonton Airport… the funny bit was this shuttle bus looked like it had been in operation since 2005! But regardless, it was a decent end to a fantastic introduction to Porter Airlines!