“Please explain why you think Porter must grow indefinitely to survive? I see no reason they cannot thrive in equilibrium with their market.” (Two Questions 8Apr09)

Equilibrium!!! Porter today is causing serious conflict with its local environment and is already beyond any reasonable point of “equilibrium”. And they’ve just started. It’s no secret they’re on an aggressive upward growth trajectory … adding more passenger aircraft several fold and getting a new ferry, which will surely seriously exasperate an already very bad conflict situation.

Powerful investors, individuals and groups have plowed millions into Porter and are hell bent on making a good buck. “Equilibrium” won’t do that for them, and just is not an option. That’s simply the way successful businesses are run in a free-market capitalistic society. (Business economics 101).

This “an equilibrium with their market” is a nice utopian notion, but it’s a myth. Do you have a real-life example you can show us? All thriving major land-based commercial airports serving large cities are constantly in conflict with their local environments as they deal with growth pressures prompted by ever-increasing air travel demand, and on the supply side, more expansive technologies (bigger, more fuel efficient planes, for example).

There is one case I can think of though that went a long way to resolving the environmental conflict. In Hong Kong they closed down completely their city centre airport which was bursting at the seams, and build a new one (Chek Lap Kok airport) far out to sea, linked by an extensive transportation infrastructure to the city core.

David Wilson