Nashville International Airport is getting a new international carrier in the spring, providing daily service to Toronto. Porter Airlines will be launching a daily nonstop service to Canada’s largest city using its 78-seat Bombardier Q400 fleet. And as with every Porter Airlines flight, there will be no middle seats, complimentary wine and beer served in glassware, and a range of premium snacks.

Nashville has experienced explosive growth in recent years, surpassing 25.7 million passengers last year, representing 61% growth over pre-pandemic levels. The Tennessean reports that the new route will be one of nine new nonstops that are already set to launch at the airport in 2026, with more on the way. But while Nashville has been connected to Toronto for many years, courtesy of Air Canada and WestJet, this new service promises to take travelers to a far more convenient airport.

The New Route to Music City

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Nashville has a limited number of international carriers. Until British Airways launched its daily Boeing 787-9 flights from London Heathrow Airportin 2018, it was limited to connections to Toronto and Montreal with Air Canada. But this is slowly changing, most recently with Aer Lingus adding a four-times-weekly service to Dublin last year using the Airbus A321XLR. Now Porter Airlines is set to become the Tennessee airport’s seventh international carrier with its flights to Toronto.

Unlike its Canadian competition, Porter will be operating the route from Billy Bishop Toronto City Centre Airport (YTZ), which is especially convenient for downtown Toronto. It will utilize its Bombardier Q400 aircraft with 78 self-described “elevated economy” seats, including six PorterReserve extra legroom seats. The flight will operate nonstop daily from May 11, with departure and arrival times still to be confirmed.

Announcing the new route, Andrew Pierce, vice president of network planning at Porter Airlines emphasized the rapid expansion of the airline being a good match to the fast-growing airport:

“We are making a substantial increase in flights for Porter this summer, touching on every region we fly to, and this new destination delivers on the continued demand we’re seeing from both business and leisure travelers to Nashville. Our overall network is growing by 20%, the fastest rate for any airline in North America.”

A Range Of New Routes For The Summer

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In addition to adding Nashville as a new destination in the Porter network, the airline will also be launching eight other new routes this spring. This will start with two new daily Q400 flights from Ottawa on May 1, before the new Nashville flights take to the skies, and then all additional new routes will be live by May 15.

Particularly notable is that Porter will be adding two new routes to Boston Logan International Airport. The airline already operates there from Billy Bishop and Ottawa, but is now adding twice-daily service from Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) and a daily service from Montréal–Trudeau International Airport(YUL), both using its Embraer E195-E2 aircraft.

This continued network expansion is enabled by the rapid growth of Porter’s Embraer E195-E2 fleet over the past three years. It recently took delivery of its 50th E195-E2 just before the holiday season last month, and is now up to 52 in operation. It has firm orders for 75 of the type, with the remaining 23 set to be delivered by early 2027, and also holds purchase rights for 25 more.

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New Developments At Billy Bishop

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The choice to fly to Nashville from YTZ differentiates Porter from Air Canada and WestJet, which both operate from YYZ. It is a regional airport located on the Toronto Islands, just minutes from the city’s downtown core, and accessible via a pedestrian tunnel with moving walkways, or a quick 90-second ferry ride. It provides a more intimate and efficient alternative to the larger, more distant YYZ, and primarily serves business and high-end leisure travelers.

Porter Airlines is synonymous with Billy Bishop Airport, being headquartered there and having been founded in 2006 to initiate regional turboprop flights from the then-underutilized facility. Since then, it has been a crucial part of growing the airport to more than 60 daily departures and over 2 million annual passengers.

The airport is also about to benefit from a new US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) preclearance facility which is set to open in February after construction was completed last month. The $30 million project is designed to transform the downtown hub into a major transborder gateway, enabling passengers to clear all US customs, immigration, and agriculture inspections in Toronto. This then allows them to land at US airports as domestic travelers, eliminating the need for further screening upon arrival and making tighter connection windows possible.

This is a boon for Porter as it not only provides more convenience for its passengers, but also allows the airline to serve US airports that lack their own customs facilities, such as smaller regional airports or specific terminals at airports like New York’s LaGuardia Airport. But Porter won’t have it all its own way, as the CBP facility’s opening has also paved the way for Air Canada to initiate flights to the US from YTZ starting in March.