Porter Airlines

Porter Airlines is the Canadian carrier that markets itself on flying refined, an elevated take on economy rather than a low-cost race to the bottom. There is no business class to buy and no basic economy to be trapped in. Instead every passenger gets the same single, comfortable cabin, with complimentary snacks, beer and wine served in proper glassware, and no seat charged as a middle. On its Embraer jets that last point is literal, and it is the reason a lot of travellers seek Porter out.

Porter flies two very different aircraft to the same standard. The Embraer E195-E2 is the jet the brand is built around, laid out two-by-two so there is no middle seat anywhere in the cabin, only aisles and windows. The De Havilland Dash 8-400 is a turboprop workhorse for shorter regional hops, also arranged 2-2, which keeps the no-middle-seat promise intact even on the smaller aircraft. Both run a single cabin, so the choice is window or aisle, front or back, not which class to book.

The single-class cabin is the whole pitch, and it holds up. Every seat is either a window or an aisle, the service is clearly above the low-cost norm, and the E195-E2 in particular feels closer to a domestic first-class row than to a packed 737. On the Dash 8 the experience is more regional-turboprop in character, quieter than older props but with the propeller hum and the shorter, lower-altitude legs those routes involve. Neither aircraft asks a passenger to choose between comfort and price the way an unbundled carrier does.

Because every seat is a window or an aisle, the usual middle-seat anxiety disappears and the choice comes down to view versus quick access. On the E195-E2, forward rows load and empty first and sit ahead of the engines, so they run quieter and get you off faster; the very back sits closest to the galley and lavatory traffic. On the Dash 8-400, the propellers sit at the wingline, so passengers sensitive to noise do better a few rows forward of or behind the propeller plane, and window seats over the wing lose a little of the view on a scenic regional leg.