ganjavih
Senior Member
If anyone tries to bulldoze down the island airport, I'll be sitting there in my rocking chair with shotgun in hand. Long live Porter!
There is an interview with CEO Deleuce on the reportonbusiness site. It is quite good.
They'll be operating 12 planes in 1 year and 20 in 18 months. Next destination to be announced in the next couple of weeks.
I happened to come across the airport noise complaint forms that were filled out by waterfront residents for the month of July. The complaints are absolutely ridiculous for the most part. People who live right next to the airport complain about basic airport noise! As people on this board would say, don't move beside an airport if you don't like airport noise! I mean they make a choice to live beside an airport and then they expect that the airport should be shut down now because they have decided that they don't like the noise. Anyhow, when I get a better feel for how many of these residents think, I can completely understand the views of the pro-Porter people.
How about these two recent complaints I've heard from people living on the harbourfront:
1) "I don't like it when the boats sound their horn as they are departing." I actually know of one case where a resident actually complained about it. Boats have do this for safety reasons.
2) "I don't like the look of the boats that are parked in the harbour." This is my favourite one!
With crazy complaints like this, again, I am leaning towards agreeing with the pro-Porter folks.
I guess since we've been telling passengers this, there's no reason why I can't confirm with you guys that chicago Midway is the next destination. Should start by November or so. Boston looks to be after that in early 09 and then it all depends on when Porter gets planes.
But Midway doesn't have customs and immigration facilities. How do that plan to deal with this? How long until TCCA requests a US customs preclearance facility?
Midway is an International airport so should have customs. According to this http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/toolbox/contacts/ports/il/3901.xml they do.
Thanks.
Currently Midway's only international destination is Cancun, which I mistakenly thought had border preclearance. Using Midway rather than O'Hare should further increase the attractiveness of Porter.
Porterize me
Not many expected Bob Deluce's airline to last, let alone thrive. Eat your heart out, Air Canada
August 28, 2008 at 5:11 PM EDT
"Let's just pop in here for a moment," says Bob Deluce, as if he were issuing an invitation to stop at some boîte for a beer or a bite to eat.
"Here," in Deluce's world, is the cabin of a Q400 turboprop. In a matter of days, Deluce will exercise an option to purchase two more of Bombardier's $26-million Qs, which will take the fleet of his company, Porter Airlines Inc., to 14. In a matter of weeks, just as summer draws to a close, he will announce the latest Porter destination: Chicago. "A downtown-to-downtown total value proposition," Deluce says of the flights from Toronto's City Centre Airport that will take off this autumn to Chicago's Midway Airport. "Fifteen minutes to the financial district." Or a steak at Gibsons.
We settle in to the cabin's soft grey leather seats. "Generous legroom," says the captain of the company, though he points out that extended legroom isn't of enormous concern for a man of his bantam build. "But if the seat moves, I'm not wearing the food."
Nice.
Back in Porter's departure lounge—sleekly minimalist in Porter's signature palette of muted taupes and greys—Britain's consul general, Nicholas Armour, is waiting to board a flight to Ottawa. "If you want to, say that one, two, three, four...10 of us are travelling up from the British consulate today," he says as Deluce does a handshake flypast through Porter's entire operation. "Don't tell David Miller."
It's a joke, of course. Toronto's mayor fought hard to keep Porter and its cheeky raccoon mascot, Mr. Porter, out of the Toronto island airport. Miller feared excessive noise and waterfront ruination. It was a valiant fight. He lost. The raccoon won, as raccoons tend to do in Toronto.
So Bob Deluce won the battle. But what about the war, as in, the maelstrom in the airline industry?
Here's a number: In early June, the International Air Transport Association predicted a punishing $6.1-billion (U.S.) loss this year for the global airline industry. A month later, the IATA forewarned that its projection was very likely low. "I've heard numbers right up to $10 billion," says Deluce of the effects of through-the-roof fuel costs and financially strapped consumers that have led to grounded aircraft and massive layoffs.
In this environment, Porter may be sitting pretty—we can't know precisely. Porter is a private company. Deluce says he hasn't yet burned through the initial $125.7 million in start-up capital provided by four private investors: EdgeStone Capital Partners, Borealis Infrastructure, GE Asset Management and Dancap Private Equity Inc. "I can tell you that last June"—he means June, 2007—"was the first profitable month for Porter," Deluce says of the 8% net income margin the company recorded. "I can tell you that in June, 2008, we've done appreciably better than June, 2007."
Liquidity for the investors? Deluce says he's under no pressure to deliver any such thing, which must be a relief, given that the prospective IPO market for airlines is, um, non-existent.
On the surface at least, Deluce appears to possess a surfeit of patience. His manner is low-key, and he sounds a little like Jimmy Stewart in a vowel-swallowing, down-home kind of way. But there's nothing aw-shucks about the man in the pinstriped suit who has drawn such private investors as Bay Street money manager Ira Gluskin and who has fought innumerable legal battles with Air Canada over his island-airport operations. The launch of Porter two years ago was executed with precision. There was the marketing campaign, with Mr. Porter imbuing the airline with a wily personality from the get-go; there were the delightfully retro attendants' uniforms designed by Pink Tartan. There's complimentary wine, complimentary beer, an in-flight magazine, re: porter, that is distinctively chic; and a newly launched frequent-flier program, VIPorter. The Porter sensibility is so ingrained, so effectively branded—everything is "Porterized" around the offices—that just the other day, one passenger was heard remarking to another, "Well, why don't you Porter it?"
"We took that as something positive," says Deluce. "The fact that they were making a verb out of Porter was probably good."
More substantively, Deluce made the right call on his regional fleet, having been one of the first in the industry to go big on the Q400, placing an initial order for 10 planes, with an option to purchase 10 more. The Q400 has suddenly proved to be the darling of the industry. Two years ago, Deluce was talking up the fast-climb capability of the 70-seat aircraft, emphasizing its nimbleness on the island airport's shorter airstrips. Then there was the "Q" factor—"Q" for quiet. ("Have you noticed any taking off?" asks Deluce, seated now in his office by the runway. "We're sitting about as close as anyone could to the runway out here.")
These days, fuel efficiency is the buzzword. The Q400 is generally acknowledged to burn some 30% to 40% less fuel than other short-haul aircraft. "The way to profits these days is via Q400 turboProfits," is Bombardier's rallying cry. This summer, Horizon Air of Seattle became the latest airline to announce a fast-track phase-out of its older turboprops in favour of the more fuel-efficient Q400s. Bombardier has been marketing the aircraft as the greener way to fly, something that Porter itself would be wise to capitalize upon. Mr. Porter in a green pillbox hat! How cute!
In his initial plan, Bob Deluce envisioned 17 destinations. Porter is up to seven: Halifax, Montreal, Newark, Ottawa, Quebec City, Toronto and now Chicago. (The airline also offered a ski run to Mont-Tremblant this past winter.) Frequent travellers, like the British consul general, are pleased thus far. "It has to be said that travelling on an intimate airline, as it were, without any fuss and bother, is very agreeable," says Armour. And that little business of having to take a 60-second ferry ride to the island airport: not a bother? "Oooh no," he says. "It's an added excitement."
Considering Zoom and the plethora of other airlines that have gone under, what do you guys think?