Featured Map for 26 February 2023:
Porter to Honolulu?!

Hawaiian Airlines was not able to attend Thursday evening's 2023 Cranky Network Awards, and thus could not personally accept their award in the Sexiest New Route – Long-Haul category for their weekly flight from Honolulu to Rarotonga, Cook Islands using an Airbus A321neo. Porter Airlines graciously accepted the award on their behalf—and joked that maybe they should launch a route to Hawaii.

Of course that's crazy. Porter built their world around flying the DHC Dash 8-400 out of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, with its 3,988-ft (1,216-m) runway. That really isn't going to work for a flight to Honolulu.

But wait! Porter has started taking delivery of the Embraer E195-E2, which has a range of 3,899 mi (4,665 km). Well, not off Billy Bishop's tiny runway, but Porter is initially basing their E195-E2 aircraft at Lester B. Pearson International Airport (YYZ), which not only has MUCH longer runways but is 12 mi (20 km) closer to Honolulu. Win!

YYZ is still almost 20% beyond the range of the E195-E2 (which is nominally 3,899 mi or 4,665 km), but our masked heroes (see their mascot, Mr. Porter) are undaunted by such minor challenges. When there were worries about Porter flying out of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport they ripped eight seats out of the Dash 8-400 to alleviate weight concerns related to the short runway. (They've since been added back.) With the E195-E2, ripping out some seats allows more weight to be devoted to fuel. Added fuel tanks might be needed, however, especially with ETOPS reserves, and even after that, load restrictions might be required. Like maybe no payload, which isn't great for revenue.

Another possibility would be to take a page from American Airlines and fly the non-stop with a technical (fuel) stop. American had planned to operate San José to Tokyo using the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 but performance shortfalls and other issues with the aircraft led to American refusing deliveries until improvements were made, and that meant that the new trans-Pacific route was launched using the DC-10-30. Depending on loads and weather conditions, the "non-stop" flight occasionally made a fuel stop at Oakland. (SJC's runways have since been lengthened.)

With or without a technical stop, the E195-E2 would also need approval for 180-minute ETOPS. (The E190 has 120-minute ETOPS; it's not clear at this writing what ETOPS approval the E195-E2 has.)

Today's Featured Map depicts this fanciful(?) flight from Toronto to Honolulu, plus Oakland for a possible fuel stop. If you click on the map, you'll see a bit of an Easter Egg: when mapping a single non-stop path along with a point location, there is a More Information section which identifies where the path comes closest to the point and what the cross-track distance is when closest. For YYZ-HNL,OAK, you'll see

More Information
The path is closest to OAK at 39°43'43"N 123°12'45"W. The cross-track distance is 149 mi.

This feature has been in the site for more than a decade but has lived in obscurity by virtue of only appearing in very specific cases.

(Note: The Great Circle Mapper respects the confidentiality of comments made at the Cranky Network Awards, even jokes. Porter Airlines' representative approved public use of the key comment in this post, and I thank them for that. Wild speculation beyond that initial joke is purely by the Great Circle Mapper and in no way reflects plans by Porter Airlines.)

References and additional information:

Porter Airlines
A Look at Cranky Network Award Winners and Announcing Next Year's Event – The Cranky Flier (24 February 2023)
The MD-11 Celebrates 30 Years Of Service – AvGeekery.com (11 January 2020)
Embraer secures E-190 ETOPS certification from US FAA – FlightGlobal (24 April 2008)

Featured Map for 26 February 2023:Porter to Honolulu?!

Featured Map for 26 February 2023:
Porter to Honolulu?!