Porter Airlines shifts restart of flights date to June 29

[Cessna 180]

TORONTO, April 27, 2020 /CNW/ - Porter Airlines is extending its temporary suspension of all flights due to COVID-19 by four weeks until June 29. The airline stopped flying on March 21, as travel restrictions and public health measures were increasing in North America.

"Our initial restart date of June 1, was something we believed was reasonable at the time," said Michael Deluce, president and CEO, Porter Airlines. "While there are many promising signs about how COVID-19 is being contained, it is also clear that border restrictions, government-imposed stay-at-home orders and bans on non-essential travel will remain in place for many regions through much of May and into June. This makes it difficult for people to travel, so Porter will continue aligning its approach with the public health response."

"We are eager to restart operations, so that team members can be recalled to work and we can help facilitate an economic recovery," said Deluce. "This will be done in a responsible manner, taking into account health and safety precautions."

Additional measures will be introduced prior to restarting flights in compliance with evolving regulations and Porter's own standards to ensure that our team and passengers are protected.

Travel options are important during times like these. To provide flexibility and give travelers peace of mind when purchasing for future travel, Porter is waiving change and cancellation fees on all fares booked by June 29. This also applies to Porter Escapes vacation packages. Tickets for travel beginning June 29 are available for purchase now.

[Localizer]

Bummer for the Porter folks ... hopefully the economy will fire on all cylinders when restrictions are lifted.

Chin up .. keep moving!

[rudder]

Canary in the coal mine.

Resume flying at 10-20% load factor? Apparently not. Private equity ownership.

This should be a clue for anybody else keen to get back to regular flying. Trans border travel restricted until late May. Potential extension.

Argentina closed until September for landing rights.

Summer 2020 air travel looking like a washout. 50% of previously planned capacity for any Canadian operator might be overly optimistic.

[altiplano]

Nobody's going to book for future travel if they aren't assured their money is safe and the airline will fly, but airline won't start flying unless it has sufficient bookings...

Consumers and travelers will wait Porter out and book on airlines that are actually flying.

They have to take a step and fly the near empty legs for a while if they want to get the ball rolling again. Besides, Porter and empty aircraft are hardly a new phenomenon.

[airliner]

OUCH!

[Localizer]

Besides, Porter and empty aircraft are hardly a new phenomenon.

Have you ever been on a Porter flight altiplano?

I've utilized the reciprocal jumpseat a number of times and the open seats were typically in the single digits.

Thanks again to the Porter folks for the jumpseat, you're always courteous, professional and I hope we can get back to the way things were.

[altiplano]

Yes I have... Granted some flights can be busy. But averaged across the airline they certainly don't run load factors in line with other airlines. It's been a while since they reported, but the last time they were reporting load factors it was at 50%ish consistently...

But all I'm saying, you want bookings? Operate flights. Even just 6 a day in the triangle. You have to give the consumers faith that the service will be there. Everyone operating, even at drastically reduced schedules, is running on low load factors.

[Localizer]

Fair enough ..

I'd agree YTZ-YOW-YUL twice a day would make sense ..

[airliner]

More like July

[ARGO]

Getting closer...

Is Porter still planning for a return on June 29th? If so, any word on what routes will be flown?

[indieadventurer]

It’s July 29

https://s3.amazonaws.com/eporter.flypo ... ndex.html

[Grey_Wolf]

It’s July 29

https://s3.amazonaws.com/eporter.flypo ... ndex.html

Not likely till Thanksgiving in my opinion.

With border restrictions, low passenger demand, cuts among other carriers, and the state of affairs in the USA; good luck!

[rudder]

Private equity owned. First priority is reducing cash burn. Will not resume any operations to lose more $$ per day than it is with fully suspended operations.

[Grey_Wolf]

https://www.skiesmag.com/press-releases ... 2Gt7jt5SmA

Now Aug 31st

[Inverted2]

Wow that's not good news. Can they survive being shut down completely for 5 full months? Can any airline?

[vrefplus5]

Wouldn’t their $135M loan tide them over?

[totalflyer]

I believe that when Porter sold the terminal they paid off all their planes at the time so they don’t have to make payments like other airlines that are leasing/financing aircraft. Probably cheaper to just leave them parked until it’s viable to restart than to just burn money to fly next to no passengers.

[Grey_Wolf]

https://ca.travelpulse.com/news/airline ... ber-7.html

Now Oct 07th

[rudder]

Looks like Porter is targeting (limited) return to service to capture Thanksgiving weekend 2020 travel.

[altiplano]

Porter is used to flying next to empty planes, gotta start something soon. I can't believe they aren't doing YYZ-YUL/YOW at least. A couple flights a day. You have to regain consumer confidence if you want them to come and that takes spending some money.

If I was making Thanksgiving plans I'd be booking with an airline that I know is flying and hasn't been rolling their delay in starting back up for months.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the death knell for Porter if their financial overlords are saying no more money for even a limited start up on the triangle routes.

[rudder]

Porter is used to flying next to empty planes, gotta start something soon. I can't believe they aren't doing YYZ-YUL/YOW at least. A couple flights a day. You have to regain consumer confidence if you want them to come and that takes spending some money.

If I was making Thanksgiving plans I'd be booking with an airline that I know is flying and hasn't been rolling their delay in starting back up for months.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the death knell for Porter if their financial overlords are saying no more money for even a limited start up on the triangle routes.

Porter is private equity owned, virtually debt free, collecting CEWS for its inactive staff, and likely on a payment moratorium for its terminal lease. Porter is probably in the best position to ‘hibernate’ of any CDN commercial carrier.

Now whether remaining entirely closed for 6+ months makes marketing sense, that is another question. I guess that future bookings will provide the answer. If it was me, I would book a Thanksgiving trip on a carrier that I had 100% confidence would be operating.

[altiplano]

Porter is used to flying next to empty planes, gotta start something soon. I can't believe they aren't doing YYZ-YUL/YOW at least. A couple flights a day. You have to regain consumer confidence if you want them to come and that takes spending some money.

If I was making Thanksgiving plans I'd be booking with an airline that I know is flying and hasn't been rolling their delay in starting back up for months.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the death knell for Porter if their financial overlords are saying no more money for even a limited start up on the triangle routes.

Porter is private equity owned, virtually debt free, collecting CEWS for its inactive staff, and likely on a payment moratorium for its terminal lease. Porter is probably in the best position to ‘hibernate’ of any CDN commercial carrier.

Now whether remaining entirely closed for 6+ months makes marketing sense, that is another question. I guess that future bookings will provide the answer. If it was me, I would book a Thanksgiving trip on a carrier that I had 100% confidence would be operating.

Right...

Except in that the private equity owners hold the purse strings tightly and will have to open them up to get Porter running again... they are apparently unwilling to throw more money in at present. If they don't get rubbing, they may find themselves waiting into obsolescence.

I believe they have more money sunk into Porter than they've made - they didn't plan on keeping their money there as was evidenced by the IPO attempt and failed private sale hopes. Their mothballed airline was chugging along, but is currently essentially worthless, parts only with middle aged Q400s and a depressed travel market.

[eeeroger]

Porter is used to flying next to empty planes, gotta start something soon. I can't believe they aren't doing YYZ-YUL/YOW at least. A couple flights a day. You have to regain consumer confidence if you want them to come and that takes spending some money.

If I was making Thanksgiving plans I'd be booking with an airline that I know is flying and hasn't been rolling their delay in starting back up for months.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the death knell for Porter if their financial overlords are saying no more money for even a limited start up on the triangle routes.

Lol why spread misinformation. As far as I know, 2019 was an incredibly profitable year for Porter so I don’t believe they are used to flying empty airplanes. I do know on reliable information that Porter is quite healthy as far as finances go and are taking an approach to re enter the market when the time is absolutely right. They aren’t bleeding tens of millions of dollars a day like their other Canadian counterparts. While I agree that it may dissuade a consumer to purchase a ticket when start up dates are being moved, I think a lot of consumers are confident that Porter’s hold is pragmatic; preventing any further spread of virus, not to mention there is next to no demand, even if travel can be done within the bounds of restrictions. It seems they have the potential to return stronger, comparatively speaking. That’s my two cents.

[rudder]

Right...

Except in that the private equity owners hold the purse strings tightly and will have to open them up to get Porter running again... they are apparently unwilling to throw more money in at present. If they don't get rubbing, they may find themselves waiting into obsolescence.

I believe they have more money sunk into Porter than they've made - they didn't plan on keeping their money there as was evidenced by the IPO attempt and failed private sale hopes. Their mothballed airline was chugging along, but is currently essentially worthless, parts only with middle aged Q400s and a depressed travel market.

I’ll bet that Gerry Schwartz wishes that he had the Porter cash flow scenario.

[altiplano]

Porter is used to flying next to empty planes, gotta start something soon. I can't believe they aren't doing YYZ-YUL/YOW at least. A couple flights a day. You have to regain consumer confidence if you want them to come and that takes spending some money.

If I was making Thanksgiving plans I'd be booking with an airline that I know is flying and hasn't been rolling their delay in starting back up for months.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the death knell for Porter if their financial overlords are saying no more money for even a limited start up on the triangle routes.

Lol why spread misinformation. As far as I know, 2019 was an incredibly profitable year for Porter so I don’t believe they are used to flying empty airplanes. I do know on reliable information that Porter is quite healthy as far as finances go and are taking an approach to re enter the market when the time is absolutely right. They aren’t bleeding tens of millions of dollars a day like their other Canadian counterparts. While I agree that it may dissuade a consumer to purchase a ticket when start up dates are being moved, I think a lot of consumers are confident that Porter’s hold is pragmatic; preventing any further spread of virus, not to mention there is next to no demand, even if travel can be done within the bounds of restrictions. It seems they have the potential to return stronger, comparatively speaking. That’s my two cents.

How do you know they were incredibly profitable? They don't release numbers...

They were "incredibly profitable" before their IPO attempt too and we know how that went once the books opened up. Porter when they did report loads was a serial sub 50% LF airline. Anyone that says they aren't used to flying sparsely full airplanes hasn't flown them much.

They are managing to continue no doubt, but immense profitability? There's some misinformation spread...