I like the idea of Porter Airlines.  This is an airline that actually operates using Bombardier Q400 aircraft from a small, inner city airport in Toronto and does so profitably.  It uses the Bombardier Q400 in a manner I’ve always suspected would earn great money for an airline.

I like this airline because it represents a business model I have strongly advocated for flights of the type that Porter flies.  It flies its aircraft on routes that fall roughly within an 800nm radius of its home airport, YTZ, or better known as Billy Bishop Toronto Airport.

Instead of cramming seats into the aircraft with a 30″ or less pitch, Porter offers a generous 34″ pitch seat that is roughly as wide as that which is in an Airbus A320 or Boeing 737.

The seat is attached to an extremely fuel efficient turboprop airplane that is also quiet and able to fly as fast as a jet (door to door) on routes less than 400nm and nearly as fast on routes up to 800nm.

The airline makes money and now it wants to fly jets.  Specifically, it wants to fly Bombardier CS100 jets from the tiny Toronto inner city airport which currently doesn’t have a runway long enough for the jets and which actually bans jets.

Making the necessary changes both physically to the airport and to the laws is very daunting to say the least.  And we are talking about Canada here, not the United States.

Porter has made an interesting play.  It’s got an order for new Canadian made jets that are very important to the Canadian aerospace industry that is contingent on Canadian federal and provincial and city governments caving in to its demands.

We think this foolish.  Porter’s success dosn’t come from flying from that small airport nearly as much as it comes from the aircraft it uses.  Highly efficient turboprops.

To be true, Toronto’s main airport (YYZ) is incredibly expensive to fly from and does offer two strong competitors (Air Canada and WestJet) and so what.  It is, at most, a level playing field.

If Porter wants to fly jets, let them fly jets . . . from YYZ.  Turning Billy Bishop into a Canadian London City Airport just isn’t the right thing to do in this case.  Even London City Airport has more infrastructure than this small airfield.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax