As the FIFA World Cup crowds put new pressure on the drive to Toronto, Niagara travellers experienced a new way to start an Air Canada trip Monday: check in at the local airport, tag their bags and board a bus to Pearson.
Air Canada Landline expanded to Niagara on June 15, giving passengers a way to start an Air Canada trip in Niagara-on-the-Lake before connecting through Toronto Pearson International Airport.
But not before a first-day wrinkle.
After picking up passengers at Niagara Falls Marriott on the Falls, the bus scheduled to leave NOTL at 11:20 a.m. mistakenly headed toward Pearson before returning to the airport for its pickup.
Travellers boarded around 12:05 p.m., about 45 minutes behind schedule, and left shortly after.
But there was no scramble inside the terminal. Landline and airport staff kept passengers updated and the schedule had extra time built in before flights.
Mary Young, of Fort Erie, used the service Monday on her way to Victoria, B.C.
She said leaving from NOTL made the trip easier, especially with road work and traffic making the drive to Toronto less appealing.
“I didn’t want my husband having to drive into the city,” she said. “Especially with the World Cup on right now.”
Air Canada has its own office space in the terminal, its own IT system connected to the airline’s network and its own access to the building, meaning Air Canada staff can come in without airport staff having to be there.
The airport, YCM, has also been working on practical upgrades, including signs, parking, benches and other passenger amenities, said Dan Pilon, the airport’s chief executive officer.
He said about five passengers took the first bus and that the route will need time to grow.
“The challenge is getting the rest of the world to know how to book through Niagara.”
Pilon said that means marketing the “how” — showing travellers that Niagara can be booked through Air Canada as the start or end point of a trip, with the bus acting as the connection to Pearson.
“There’s no magic pill,” he said. “Following what’s happened in other locations, it takes time to build.”
There is currently no charge to park at the airport and no time limit, Pilon said. Landline’s website tells passengers they can park free for up to two weeks.
Jacques Thibodeaux, Landline’s director for Canada, said Niagara was one of three Ontario markets launching Monday, along with Muskoka and Sarnia.
They join existing Air Canada Landline routes in Hamilton, Kitchener and Kingston.
“Effectively, this represents a doubling of our service today,” he said in an interview.
The Niagara service is starting with support from the three municipalities that own the airport.
To help the service get started, the Town of NOTL, the City of Niagara Falls and the City of St. Catharines each committed up to $125,000 from municipal accommodation tax funds to create a $375,000 revenue guarantee.
The money is not an upfront payment to Air Canada or Landline and is only drawn if ridership falls short.
Other municipalities are taking different approaches to supporting it.
The City of Kingston told The Lake Report it has a commercial agreement with Landline for a revenue guarantee, funded by its municipal accommodation tax up to $200,000 plus marketing support.
The city said the service began in September 2025 and has used the guarantee, but ridership has been trending positively month over month. As of May 1, Kingston’s service doubled from two daily trips to four.
In Sarnia, the new service is a one-year pilot between Air Canada, Landline and the city.
Sarnia committed a minimum revenue guarantee of $375,000, with half from budgeted airport business development money and half from a partnership with the local destination marketing organization. The city said no funds were drawn before the June 15 launch.
Hamilton International Airport said it has not provided any type of revenue guarantee to Air Canada or Landline. The twin cities of Kitchener-Waterloo also haven’t provided a revenue guarantee.
Muskoka did not respond to questions about whether they have financial arrangements tied to the service by press time.
The new Niagara service has created three customer-service agent positions and four bus-driver roles for Air Canada and Landline.
Lezlie Harper, of Niagara Bound Tours, told The Lake Report she is pleased to see the initiative and hopes it helps her business.
“As a tour operator and receptive here in Niagara, I am delighted.”
However, she said, the region still has to deal with the next step: how visitors move around once they get here.
“Once visitors get off the bus, how do they get to other areas of the region?” Harper wrote in an email. “The regional and local political and tourism leaders need to address this.”
She said Niagara needs to put more focus on helping visitors understand how to get here from Pearson or Buffalo airport.
“We have not done a good job with that so far.”
Harper said she expects local transportation companies will play a role, but she does not know yet how it will work.
“I am assuming there will be many of our transportation companies that will be providing transportation.”
“I just hope that people don’t get too greedy — where everyone wants a piece of that action — so that our visitors are left spinning, due to dizzy costs,” she said.
Pilon said options such as Uber are generally close by and the airport is also working with local transportation company Zoom Zoom.
“You’re going to get somebody within less than five minutes from here,” he said.
To mark the launch, the airport prepared welcome bags with local items for the first 100 passengers using the Niagara service, whether arriving or departing.
The service will run seven days a week, with departures from the airport scheduled for 5:30 a.m., 11:20 a.m. and 4:05 p.m.
Each airport departure also has a pickup at Marriott on the Falls 40 minutes earlier.
