According to Roger Tasse’s report, Review Of Toronto Port Authority Report, the Toronto Port Authority (TPA) and Porter Airlines signed a Commercial Carrier Operating Agreement.

According Bloomberg’s article, Jazz Air Drops Toronto Airport Suit, Agency Says (Update2), Jazz Air’s lawyer Earl Cherniak at a hearing last year “Porter’s agreement with the authority barred regional carriers, including Jazz Air, from flying between the airport and New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Detroit and Cleveland.”

According to a U.S. Department of Transport (DOT) filing in support of Porter Airlines’ application for a foreign air carrier permit, Lisa Raitt , then CEO of the TPA, submitted two pieces of evidence to show that the island airport was open for competition.

One was a letter, dated December 4, 2006, from US Airways’ Tina Ghilad asking if a proposed schedule of 14 weekly flights, Philadelphia-Toronto-, Philadelphia would be acceptable to the TPA.

The other was a response from Lisa Raitt, TPA CEO, December 4, 2006, which stated, “The number of flights are acceptable and we can discuss the exact times of departures and arrivals at an appropriate time.”

How is this possible? 

According to public information the TPA and Porter Airlines signed an agreement barring regional carriers from flying between Toronto and Philadelphia in 2005, yet in 2006, Ms Raitt stated that US Airways could fly between Toronto and Philadelphia.

The DOT cited Ms Raitt’s evidence to grant Porter Airlines an exemption to allow it to fly to U.S. destinations under its application for a permit could be considered.  That permit is currently before the DOT. 

At the time of the original application, the DOT stated that Ms Raitt’s evidence overrode the objections of those carriers which argued that Porter Airline’s hub, the island airport, was a closed shop.

Bob Kotyk