Toronto-bound plane passengers could see CN Tower before landing in wrong city
Passengers of a Toronto-bound flight on Monday night could see the CN Tower from the windows of their plane before being denied landing and forced to be redirected to a completely different city.
Porter Airlines flight 2946 departed from Boston Logan International Airport at 9:39 pm on Monday evening — already running two hours and nine minutes late.
It was supposed to be a quick flight totalling less than 90 minutes to Billy Bishop Airport in Toronto, but passengers would end up on an unexpected late-night bus ride from a completely different city after having the Toronto skyline in their sights.
Passenger Russell Nichols documented his experience, telling blogTO that “on July 15 2024 at approximately 9:30 pm, our Porter flight PD2946 left Logan Airport in Boston after a 2.5 hour delay.”
“We arrived in Toronto around 10:50 pm. I could see the CN tower out the window. However, our pilot came on and said that we had arrived too late and were not allowed to land. Our plane was sent to Hamilton.”
According to Ports Toronto, “Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport has a landing curfew of 11 pm.”
This means that if flights like the one from Porter last night are unable to land in Toronto before said curfew, “regrettably, the aircraft is required to divert to the nearest airport that can accommodate the unscheduled arrival.”
Nichols was baffled by the redirection, saying, “I have no idea why we were sent to Hamilton Airport when Pearson was so much closer.”
blogTO reached out to Porter seeking comment on the diversion, and a representative of the airline explained that “We are able to use Toronto Pearson and Hamilton as alternate airports when possible. In the case of flight 2946, yesterday, there was no available space at Pearson to accommodate the arrival.”
“The flight was initially delayed because Boston implemented a ground stop, which restricts arrivals. That caused the aircraft operating the flight to be delayed getting to Boston and, subsequently, the return flight to Toronto was affected.”
From the moment the flight was redirected, Nichols documented every step of the complicated journey back home, starting with the plane’s touchdown at John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton at 11:14 pm.
It was another 20 minutes before passengers deplaned and headed to customs, only to be informed that they were missing customs forms that Porter staff were supposed to have handed out on the plane.
Nichols said he didn’t clear customs and pick up his luggage until 11:54 pm, a full 30 minutes after landing in Hamilton and over an hour after spotting downtown Toronto from the plane’s window.
At this point, Nichols was told by an airport employee there was a shuttle bus that would take passengers to Billy Bishop in Toronto, though he explains that “there is no one from Porter anywhere.”
Nichols boarded the bus just before midnight, still not even certain it was headed to Toronto, explaining that “the driver just arrived and we immediately took off.”
It was 1:10 am on Tuesday when Nichols finally arrived at the correct airport and in the right city by bus, for a total delay exceeding four hours.
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