Toronto Star on Porter
In today's Toronto Star, February 1, 2009, Chris Sorensen writes an article on Porter Airlines. "Porter Tries to Fly above Economic Turbulence." You can find it at, http://www.thestar.com/article/580507#Comments
In the article Sorensen quotes Robert Deluce, Porter's CEO, that "Bookings have been quite strong over all. And short-term business bookings have held up reasonably well." Deluce went on to say that Porter is scheduled to take delivery of another 10 Bombardier Q400 bringing the total fleet size up to 18. None of this can be confirmed because Porter is a private company,
But significant seems to have changed. Deluce no longer is bragging about profitability. He sounds a lot more tentative than we have heard him in the past. He admitted that Porter's service to Newark "took an initial hit following the market crises," and "holding up reasonably well," does not sound very convincing. The country is facing a severe, long-term recession and the airlines suffer more than other other industries in times of recessions.
Sorensen goes on to write "several observers continue to question whether Porter is actually making money as it goes head-to-head with giants such as Air Canada and West Jet Airlines."
Robert Kokonis, an airline consultant pointed out that the Porter prices are way above the other airlines and airline customers are very price sensitive.
It also seems to be significant that on the same page in the Star is another article entited "Airlines are in a free fall, says IATA." The International Air Transport Association said that air freight plunged 22.6 % in December 2008.
Bill Freeman
The Sorensen Star online article allows readers to comment. Most of those comments are positive, pointing out that Porter gives great service. The meals and drinks are great. But these are some of the negative comments that you can find there.
BB192-Porter on time
My sister in law was to fly from Center Island to Ottawa on a Sunday, her flight was delayed over 3 hours because of a mechanical issue. Then, in January, a couple of friends of mine were to fly form Ottawa to Toronto on Porter. We had supper reservation for 7:30 PM and their flight was to arrive at 5:00PM. Well, at 5:00P<, the aircraft that was supposed to do their flight was still in Halifax and Porter kept telling him that the airplane was going to arrive in 10 minutes. Well, the airplane arrived in Ottawa at 6:15PM. Imagine that, he had been at the airport since 2:00PM, in thte time between he arrived and the Porter airplane arrived, there were 4 Air Canada flights. So you know what? Porter is not the be all and end all of the airline business, they are no better than anyone else ou there, they have more issues than being reported.
Submitted by ghoule at 10:54 AM Sunday, February 01 2009
Porter suffers from confusion at all levels!
In the article Sorensen quotes Robert Deluce, Porter's CEO, that "Bookings have been quite strong over all. And short-term business bookings have held up reasonably well." Deluce went on to say that Porter is scheduled to take delivery of another 10 Bombardier Q400 bringing the total fleet size up to 18. None of this can be confirmed because Porter is a private company,
But significant seems to have changed. Deluce no longer is bragging about profitability. He sounds a lot more tentative than we have heard him in the past. He admitted that Porter's service to Newark "took an initial hit following the market crises," and "holding up reasonably well," does not sound very convincing. The country is facing a severe, long-term recession and the airlines suffer more than other other industries in times of recessions.
Sorensen goes on to write "several observers continue to question whether Porter is actually making money as it goes head-to-head with giants such as Air Canada and West Jet Airlines."
Robert Kokonis, an airline consultant pointed out that the Porter prices are way above the other airlines and airline customers are very price sensitive.
It also seems to be significant that on the same page in the Star is another article entited "Airlines are in a free fall, says IATA." The International Air Transport Association said that air freight plunged 22.6 % in December 2008.
Bill Freeman
The Sorensen Star online article allows readers to comment. Most of those comments are positive, pointing out that Porter gives great service. The meals and drinks are great. But these are some of the negative comments that you can find there.
BB192-Porter on time
My brother-in-law has always had some odd thing happen while flying Porter - the latest was being stranded in Ottawa for 12 hours and being told there were no flights until the fog cleared. Later that evening while sitting (still) in Ottawa airport he got a call from a baggage handler on Toronto Island asking him why he did not pick up his suitcase...he found out flights were getting out of Ottawa and his luggage was on one of them! Amazing how Porter would allow a bag onto a plane without a matching passenger!
Submitted by AyeBlossom at 9:43 AM Sunday, February 01 2009
A surefire way to lose money.
Expanding an airline during a recession seems to be a dumb idea . But of course , this is Canada and the normal rules don't apply. Porter's downtown airport advantage is overstated. Most of GTA's businesses are closer to Pearson than to downtown.
Submitted by ProudIndian at 9:23 AM Sunday, February 01 2009
Typical Airline Hype
I would take what Deluce says with a grain of salt. Suddenly going out of business when all was supposedly well is the norm in the industry, and exactly what happened with Deluce's previous airline, Canada 3000. On the competition issue, Air Canada's comment ("Given that Porter enjoys a monopoly at Toronto Island Airport, their complaint on this issue is rather surprising," is exactly what I was thinking.
Submitted by Mad Maxx at 8:23 AM Sunday, February 01 2009
I want to see a Union Station to Pearson direct rail connection.
There is nothing I want more than to see Porter Airlines fail. Between Federal government financial support and bullying by the unelected federal Toronto Port Authority they trumped Toronto voters wishes and, to my mind, stole my waterfront and Islands from me. Ever increasing new Porter routes and flights and aircraft will expand unabated forever into the future. I wish the other airlines flying out of Pearson luck in their competition with Porter and hope that a Union Station to Pearson fast connection will be achieved soon. This Star article smacks of a paid advertisement rather than an article. Boot Deluce out of business by boycotting Porter. We don't need (except perhaps Star Staff and wealthy Bay Street types) this Airline polluting our air over the waterfront every few minutes.
Submitted by wab at 8:03 AM Sunday, February 01 2009
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