You are being selective with the information that you are conveying.

With regards to the Globe and Mail article that your referenced:

-The two investors that want out are basically venture capitalist firms that are in to provide start up money and then they want to cash out at a profit to show a return for their investors. In short they are in for a good time not a long time. Onex is a firm for example that takes investments in firms and then starts to sell off pieces of it when they feel they can generate a financial return. Thus if they are seeking to get their money out it is a good sign, not a bad sign. Otherwise they would just dump their shares for cents on the dollar. Following your line of thought Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment is in financial problems because the Ontario Teachers pension plan wants to sell their 66% position.

2) The same article that your referenced has indicated that Porter's traffic has surged 87.7% last year and its load factor has increased 6.3%, which brings it to a break even level.

I would like to add that you look at the peak period of flights and compare it to the low period. Airlines are a seasonal industry, thus their traffic goes up and down. If you were to compare a current month to the equivalent month to the year before you will always see growth, as well you will see growth year over year when you compare the current year to date to the previous one. In short, you are picking and choosing numbers to make a point. By way of comparison, if you were to look at Air Canada's numbers from their 2009 annual report you will note the following:
a) full year loss of $316m
b) Revenue per seat mile down 5.2%
c) Adjusted debt is $1.5B
d) Working capital -$468B
e) Free cash flow -$52M

Following your line of thought the bailiffs are waiting at the door of Air Canada.

As well you keep emphasizing the discounts, my point remains every airline discounts their pricing. My question remains, how many seats do they sell at the discounted rate? I am not privy to their books, but if I were a betting man, a relatively small percentage. Have you ever considered that their approach of advertising a discounted rate is part of their marketing approach, to entice people to buy. If all of their seats are selling at a discount, then it effectively means that the real price is 20 or 30 percent lower than their published rate.

Bill my friend people like to buy at a discount. If you really want to make a point that Porter is a failure, you should compare it against other airlines and track seasonality, and compare their respective break even levels. Air Canada needs a higher load level to break even than Porter. It is not fair to say that Air Canada is in better shape because they have a higher load rate.

Back to you Bill

Rob