TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 26, 2026--
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261026247440/en/
Passengers benefit from the new U.S. CBP Preclearance facility at YTZ, clearing customs and immigration in Toronto prior to departure, arriving in the U.S. as domestic passengers.
Many connecting itineraries are also enabled via O’Hare with codeshare partner American Airlines, such as Denver, Houston, Minneapolis, Orange County, San Diego and Seattle.
The new schedule is as follows:
Porter provides comprehensive flight schedules from Toronto, emphasizing its continued investment in Canada’s largest city.
YTZ-ORD is operated on the 78-seat De Havilland Dash 8-400 aircraft. On every flight, passengers enjoy Porter’s signature service, including no middle seats, complimentary wine and beer served in glassware, and premium snacks. All 29 aircraft are being upgraded with the TiSeat 2V Lite from Expliseat, which maximizes comfort with enhanced seat and back cushions. Other cabin enhancements include updated table trays and a new Personal Electronic Device (PED) holder, allowing passengers to use their devices hands-free, LED mood lighting and reading lights, as well as new carpeting. The first planes featuring these changes are currently operating and the full fleet will be upgraded this fall.
Full schedule details are available at www.flyporter.com.
Quotes
“Since launching U.S. flights from YTZ in 2008, Porter has been committed to providing an elevated economy service between Toronto and key American cities, providing travellers with more choice and flexibility. The shift to O’Hare creates many new connecting itinerary options through our American Airlines partnerships for passengers travelling north and south.”
- Andrew Pierce, vice president, network planning and reporting, Porter Airlines
“Year after year, O’Hare International Airport ranks as the most connected airport in the United States, and the continuous investment and unwavering commitment from all of our airline partners help us retain that title. On behalf of Mayor Brandon Johnson, we welcome Porter to O’Hare and look forward to many years of helping Chicagoans connect with family and friends to the north and explore the sights of Toronto, while opening the door to new business opportunities between our two global cities.”
- Commissioner Michael McMurray, Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA)
“Chicago has long been one of the most important destinations for travellers from Toronto, linking two globally connected cities that are leaders in business, finance, innovation, tourism and culture. Porter’s new service to Chicago O’Hare strengthens those connections while expanding the choice available from Billy Bishop Airport. Together with the convenience of U.S. Preclearance and the airport’s downtown location, this route offers a faster, more seamless journey for travellers and further enhances Toronto’s connectivity to key North American markets.”
- RJ Steenstra, President and CEO, Toronto Port Authority, owner and operator of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport
“When Porter first launched service to Chicago in 2008, it was only its second U.S. destination from Billy Bishop. Nearly 18 years later, this new connection to O’Hare is an exciting next chapter in that story. For passengers, it means more choice, more opportunities to connect and an increasingly seamless journey from the heart of Toronto to Chicago and beyond.”
- Jennifer Quinn, CEO, Nieuport Aviation
About Porter
Since 2006, Porter Airlines has been elevating the experience of economy air travel for every passenger, providing genuine hospitality with style, care and charm. Porter’s fleet of Embraer E195-E2 and De Havilland Dash 8-400 aircraft serves North America, including a coast-to-coast domestic Canadian network, the U.S., Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America. Headquartered in Toronto, Porter is an Official 4 Star Airline® in the World Airline Star Rating®. Visit www.flyporter.com or follow @porterairlines on Instagram, Facebook and X.
Porter Airlines is reshaping its presence in Chicago by launching its inaugural service between Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ) and Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) with twice daily flights.
JALUD, West Bank (AP) — Israel's elections Tuesday could mark the end of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decades-long political career.
But his legacy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank — of massive settlement expansion, the displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians and the empowerment of armed settler extremists — will likely endure, even if his opponents seek to rein it in.
Israelis are deeply divided over Netanyahu's leadership and moral character, but they largely support settlement expansion and are opposed to a Palestinian state. So while Netanyahu's opponents have vowed to crack down on settler violence and remove the most contentious outposts, they are mostly against a two-state solution, seen internationally as the only realistic way to resolve the conflict.
“There shouldn’t be any illusions,” said Mairav Zonszein, senior Israel analyst at the International Crisis Group.
“At best, (a new government) would be able to slow down the extremely crazy acceleration that we’ve seen in the last four years of every aspect of Israel’s aggression in the occupied territories and inside Israel itself.”
One legacy of Netanyahu’s nearly unbroken 17-year rule — the longest of any Israeli leader — is that large groups of armed settlers now routinely defy the Israeli military as they rampage through Palestinian communities, drive people from their homes and seize ever larger swaths of their land.
Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza turbocharged the process. Netanyahu's opponents could bring in more troops and authorize stricter measures, but the genie may already be out of the bottle.
Netanyahu's government has distributed thousands of firearms to the settlers, who have allies in the military and security forces. Some extremist settlers have become like sheriffs — making arrests, killing Palestinians they say posed a threat, summoning security forces and driving Palestinian families from their homes.
The Palestinian Tubasi family was forced out in July after settlers besieged their hilltop home in the West Bank village of Jalud for 19 days. The settlers cut off their water access and their electricity, and threatened to “barbecue” them if they didn’t leave, said Mahmoud Tubasi, 60, the patriarch.
An Israeli court ordered the military to bring the family back, but that hasn't happened. Troops aborted their latest mission soon after it began, when a mob of over 150 armed settlers quickly assembled, scaled the walls of the home and set a car on fire.
Troops threw Tubasi and his family into an armored jeep and drove them away as settlers torched the place. They now live in relatives' houses in the valley below their gutted and blackened home, around which settlers still roam.
Israel’s military did not respond to a request for comment.
“If they wanted to evacuate them, of course, 100%, they can do that,” Tubasi said. “This is an army that fights in Lebanon, Gaza and in Iran — they can’t control 150 or 200 settlers?”
Under Netanyahu, settlers have established over 250 rustic camps across the territory, focusing particularly on areas where Palestinian herding communities have dwelled for decades.
The outposts allow the settlers to effectively run Palestinians off vast rural areas by attacking shepherds, taking over water resources and grazing their own herds, all under the eye of Israeli troops.
Dror Etkes, a researcher with an Israeli anti-settlement group, says the outposts have allowed the settlers to seize effective control of around a fifth of the West Bank. Israel captured the territory, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.
Since 2023, the strategy has forced at least 127 Palestinian herding communities off their land, according to data gathered by Etkes' organization, known as Kerem Navot, and B'Tselem, another Israeli anti-settlement group.
The departures have cleared nearly the entire eastern flank of the West Bank, along the border with Jordan, of Palestinians. The settlers' explicit goal is to prevent the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.
Netanyahu’s opponents say they will go after the most violent settlers and dismantle outposts — which are illegal under Israeli law. But they will not evacuate the over 100 new settlements Netanyahu's government legalized, including 44 that were formerly outposts. Nor will they remove settlements dating back decades, many of which now resemble fully developed suburbs.
Most of the international community views all Israeli settlements as illegal and an obstacle to a two-state solution. Israel views the West Bank as the biblical and historical heartland of the Jewish people and says its future status should be decided by negotiations — which have not been held in over a decade.
Even if some outposts are removed, many Palestinians seeking to return would find their homes burned and looted, and would continue to face threats from nearby settlers.
“The story is over. There will be no massive dismantlement of settlement,” said Etkes. “It’s now a full and prouder-than-ever apartheid regime.”
Amnesty International and other major rights groups accused Israel of the international crime of apartheid even before the Oct. 7 attack and its aftermath. Israel denies the allegation.
The politician most likely to replace Netanyahu as prime minister is retired general Gadi Eisenkot, a political centrist. He hopes to form a majority coalition with three other parties spanning Israel's political spectrum and without Arab-led parties advocating a two-state solution.
Beth Oppenheim, an Israel analyst for the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the opposition has “struggled to formulate a convincing alternative" to the right's new security strategy of “aggressively pre-empting threats, maintaining complete freedom of operation and imposing buffer zones.”
Palestinian attacks, like a shooting on Friday that killed two Israeli soldiers, and efforts on the right to cast the Israeli left as enemy sympathizers, have taken their toll. “The net effect is that talk of ‘peace’ and compromise has become politically toxic,” Oppenheim said.
Eisenkot does not support a Palestinian state but is open to limited self-rule in the 40% of the West Bank currently administered by the Palestinian Authority under agreements reached in the 1990s. He would allow settlement growth in the other 60% of the territory, which is under direct Israeli military rule.
He has also vowed to empower Israeli troops and paramilitary Border Police to crack down on settler violence.
Eisenkot “is interested in lowering the friction in the West Bank and interested in definitely lowering the sanctions and the intention for sanctions by European countries,” Zonszein said. “He’ll do kind of the minimum necessary to get the maximum effect.”
Eisenkot's prospective allies include left-wing politicians who oppose settlements and have favored a two-state solution, but they have agreed to set those positions aside to form a coalition to oust Netanyahu.
Israeli leaders have long balanced their ambitions in the occupied territories with demands from Washington aimed at resolving the conflict. But they are unlikely to face any significant pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who endorsed Netanyahu and has long backed his policies.
Krauss reported from Ottawa, Ontario.
FILE - An Israeli settler overlooks members of Israeli forces blocking a road preventing Palestinians from reaching groves to harvest olives in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
FILE - A burnt car is seen in front of one of the two Palestinian houses belonging to the Tubasi family, which were burned in the West Bank village of Jalud, Sept. 29, 2026, following an overnight attack by Israeli settlers. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
FILE - Israeli settlers are seen at one of the Palestinian houses belonging to the Tubasi family after they took it over in the West Bank village of Jalud, Aug. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
Mahmoud Tubasi, left, and his son Wael, over look their family's houses, which were burned by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Jalud, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Mahmoud Tubasi stands on a rooftop near his two family's houses, which were burned by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Jalud, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
