American, Porter Air Plan Transborder Cooperation

American Airlines and Porter Air are teaming up to boost transborder traffic. The pair applied to the US DOT for a blanket codeshare, allowing each to place its flight number on the other’s flights.

The flights will be between the United States and Canada, via intermediate points, between gateways in each country and points within, and points beyond, thus extending the range of American’s and PACL’s services to the mutual benefit of the traveling and shipping public and the Joint Applicants.

– DOT Application

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This would be an additional partner for Porter across the border; it also has a deal to feed passengers to and from Air Transat. That is, however, a very different level of feed than what American can offer and from a different geography.

For American, however, the move comes with slightly different motivation. American sought access to fly passengers to Toronto’s downtown Billy Bishop Airport (YTZ) more than four years ago, via upstart Connect Airlines. That included additional investment from a partner, implied to be American, in August 2023.

Connect failed to get off the ground, however, and its efforts were deemed dead by the DOT in November 2023.

Now American will work with Porter, and its well-established service at YTZ, to deliver those connections. Or maybe not. Currently all of Porter’s service to AA hubs flies from Pearson Airport (YYZ), not Billy Bishop.

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The pair argue in the application the “codeshare arrangement will enable each carrier to offer convenient additional services between the United States and Canada and beyond. This will enhance competition, as well as the transborder service options available to consumers.” And American very much trails the competition in terms of access to the Canadian market. Porter similarly trails from the other side of the border.

United Airlines and Air Canada have had a joint business agreement since 2022, the most tightly integrated transborder arrangement.

Delta Air Lines holds an equity stake in its partner WestJet, though it never got all the way to establishing a joint venture operation. A DOT requirement to divest LaGuardia slots proved too costly for the pair to accept.