IMO, anyone travelling to Florida from Ottawa should consider AllegiantAir.
First as far as the distance, obviously OGS is farther than YOW for most in the Ottawa area but you really have to consider the total time. For an international flight, from YOW, you have to get there at least 2 hours before departure. Most people in the Ottawa area need about 30 minutes (or more) to drive to the airport and park so you really need to leave home about 2 1/2 hours (or more) before your flight. To fly from OGS, most people will need about 1 hour to drive to there. Customs (i.e. security) usually only takes 15 minutes or less and then you probably only need to arrive 30-45 minutes before the flight so the travel time for most travellers will probably be less to OGS than it is to YOW. I certainly think that you can leave for a flight from OGS at the same time as you'd leave for a flight from YOW.
Cost is likely the biggest factor for most travellers. AllegiantAir does nickle and dime for everything so you really have to look at the total cost. AllegiantAir does fluctuate a lot but in my experience, they are pretty much always cheaper even after all the cost. Looking at XMas vacation (Dec24-Jan7), to fly OGS-SFB, it's about $485US each with one checked-in luggage each leg (but no seat reservation (I believe the luggage is $35/each leg)). For the same dates WestJet, it's about $1150CND with one checked luggage. You also have to consider parking costs. Unfortunately, OGS stopped offering free parking this year but it's still significantly cheaper than YOW ($8US vs $16CND / day (long term)).
The other issue for those travelling to Orlando is landing in SFB vs MCO. I think for many, SFB is a bit of a pain (from my experience rental cars are more expensive but I think we've only rented a once or twice), no Magical Express from SFB. That said, travelling to / from SFB can be much nicer than travelling from MCO because of the crowds (a few years ago, I almost missed my return flight from MCO because we *only* arrived 2 hours before the flight. I already had my boarding pass and I didn't have any checked luggage but it took 2 hours to check-in and get through security (I ended up having to cut the line at security and run to the gate and my wife (who had gone ahead with our kids while I was parking or something) held the plane at the gate (using the excuse that she couldn't fly alone with our 2 young kids (one is special needs). SFB is busier than most other airports Allegiant flies to / from but you can probably get there 45 minutes or an hour before a flight and have no problems at all.
Certainly one of the big concerns with AllegiantAir is that the flight dates and times are limited (hopefully it will expand in the future but right now, it's Wednesdays and Saturdays) but if you can work with those days, then it's available. The other issue is there are no "backup" flights. From my experience / observation, Allegiant is pretty good about dealing with delays of their own causing but if you miss the flight, then you are pretty much screwed ...
A lot of people mention delays and maintenance issues with Allegiant but over the last 6 years, we've flown about 15 times with them and I believe we've had 3 significant delays (more than 30-45 minutes) with them. First time (from PBG), another airline (USAirways I believe) was delayed and were blocking the gate so we had to wait for 1 or 2 hours for that plane before the Allegiant plane (which was sitting on the tarmac) could approach the gate and we could board). The second time (from SYR), the flight from Florida used up more fuel than anticipated so had to refuel but it appears that they couldn't get fuel from SYR (it was one of their first flights from SYR so maybe they didn't have the account setup or something) so we ended up having to fly from SYR to Pennsylvania and then Pennsylvania to Florida. The total delay was probably about 5 hours mostly because it looks like the biggest delay for them is filing new flight plans and getting approval. The 3rd time (from Scranton), there was a mechanical issue so we were delayed about 2 hours. Having said that, we pretty much just travel in winter where flight delays / missed connections / cancellations are very common. We've had 3 delays but no cancellations (and obviously no missed connections since Allegiant only flies direct). There are delays / cancellations with all airlines and while I won't say that Allegiant is better than others, I don't think it's that much worse than others.
Hope this helps,
Mike
