Thanks, Rob.


Certainly if all was rosy with Porter, we'd be spending more time looking at other issues. Bu it's not that rosy a picture, and it is important for those ocnsidering the future of the Island Airport to be aware that Porter may not be around in the near future.

That said, there is no monthly data avaiable on Porter's RPMs prior to July 2009, to our knowledge. Porter only started releasing that data in July, 2010, with comparables to the previous year.

And it is hard to compare seasonal variations with other airlines as their business is a different mix of long and short-haul flights. More years' data from Porter would certainly help us understand better how its business varies seasonally.

One is left with deriving some tentative conclusions based on the available information.

It would be helpful if Porter would release the same kind of information that its comeptitors do, so that our information and analysis is more complete. As it is not required to, it releases only that information that it thinks will advance its image.

We don't know what its break-even load factor is. Certainly not 50% any more, although Porter CEO Deluce was able to spin that to the media for years before he was contradicted by the information in its prospectus last year. Q1 2010, it was 54.62%, and moving upwards.

Competing with Air Canada on price can only drive down the yield, and raise the break-even load factor even higher.

I appreciate your taking the time to respond. There's lots to learn about how the airline business works.

Here's one long-time industry insider's take on Porter's last publicly available financial report:

"Their operating margin including interest as an expense places them squarely, and quite handily, as the worst performing airline in North America in 1Q 2010. For the record, that margin is -16.11%. As I recall, the next worst was AMR [American Airlines] at -10%."

Another financial analyst put it this way:

"What's wrong with this picture? A 4 year old monopolistic airline with a sophisticated operation generates a $6 million dollar loss in Q1 2010 notwithstanding a doubling of passenger volume vs. Q1 2009 and heavy price discounting across the board.

And Porter could only manage to fill 47% of seats available?"

We've seen no evidence that their financial performance has improved since then.

Brian Iler