Toronto Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport | ?m | ?s | Ports Toronto | Arup

Robert Deluce did a speech recently at MaRS CIBC Presents Entrepreneurship 101:

http://www.marsdd.com/blog/2010/02/22/the-50-year-overnight-success-story-of-mr-porter/

It is around an hour, about half of it questions and answers (about half the time was Q&A). One thing he mentioned was that they are looking at 12 return flights a week to Tremblant next year, with up to 5 on Sundays (when everyone wants to return to Toronto from their trip).

He also noted that their expansion plans will continue to focus on Toronto over other hub cities as long as they can.
 
Last edited:
Nice but not entirely useful until they finish all the work and fully segregate domestic and US bound passengers.
Click to expand...

The new baggage areas (separate domestic and US) will be much nicer than the old one. The old baggage belt was very small could get quite crowded when several flights were arriving at once. More capacity at security as well, which should move things more quickly in busy times.
 
I guess what “what goes around comes around”

Air Canada and Continental Airlines Inc. gunning to break Porter's monopoly at the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport,

Air Canada's partner Jazz and a predecessor, which had been flying to and from the downtown airport for years, reduced service even as the redevelopment was progressing. The airport's traffic waned to 25,000 fliers in 2005 from 400,000 a year in the late 1980s.

Mr. Deluce insists that Air Canada and Jazz have passed up opportunities to return to the island airport. "It's not as if we've enjoyed a monopoly," he protests. "We've always competed with Air Canada in every market we're in."

Porter Airlines says it's on track to carry 1.3 million passengers in and out of Billy Bishop this year, up from 269,000 in 2007.

more..........http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704131404575117672408695964.html
 
The airport's traffic waned to 25,000 fliers in 2005 from 400,000 a year in the late 1980s.
Click to expand...

When there was 400,000 passengers a year, that was with several airlines but only a few destinations? (Ottawa, Newark, Montreal?) With fewer passengers per plane (Dash 7/8s vs the current Q400), that must have been a lot of flights.
 
Porter is increasing its YTZ-YUL and YTZ-YOW service starting in May

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2010/18/c3020.html

Flights between Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport and Montreal Trudeau Airport will grow to 46 daily trips from the current peak of 28. On the Toronto City Airport-Ottawa route, flight frequency increases to 38 daily trips from 34. The majority of flights will operate every 40 minutes on the Montreal route and every hour on the Ottawa route. These changes take full effect May 5.
Click to expand...

This will give them a lot more flights at the busy times, which will be nice. I just looked up May 18th at random from YTZ-YOW and it is showing departures at 6:40, 7:10, 7:40, 8:30, 10:00, 11:30, 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, 3:30, 4:15, 4:45, 5:30, 6:00, 6:45, 7:45, 8:45, 10:00
 
Porter is starting up twice-daily flights from YTZ to YQM (Moncton) via YOW (starting June 25).

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2010/22/c3672.html

A schedule of two daily roundtrips is available for the summer season until September 7. A year-round program of four weekly flights remains in place after this time, including daily roundtrips on Thursday and Friday, plus twice daily Sunday service. One-way fares between Moncton and Ottawa begin at $149, while fares between Moncton and Toronto begin at $129, plus fees and taxes.
Click to expand...
 
It's really interesting too see how much they continue to go for new Canadian destinations when for the longest time when I was there the talk was always "we'll be in Boston, Washington and Philly really soon". Only Boston happened. That sends a real message to potential investors when they go public that the US routes aren't doing what they expected them to do. Ya they added Myrtle Beach but that wasn't in the original business plan (mind you, nor were Tremblant, Halifax, St Johns or Moncton). It'll be interesting to see if they expand westward before entering some of these American destinations, or perhaps the opening of the airport to other airlines will result in a codeshare with continental or whatever other US airline wants in.
 
Not sure if it matters so much for Philly, but if they want to get into DCA in Washington, they will need to get US preclearance in place. Even if the Americans will allow it, the terminal facilities to support preclearance won't be completed until later in the year.
 
I think it is likely harder to get the slots they would want at a price they can afford at the loads and yield they expect in Philly and DC.
 
All of that is true, but at the same time, I think if you asked Deluce a couple years ago if he would be in Philly and Washington before Moncton and St Johns, I think he would have looked at you funny for even considering they would go to those places before the big US destinations. There's nothing wrong with continuing to grow in Canada, but after the YOW-YUL-YTZ triangle, the US was considered the biggest opportunity for Porter to succeed and it's just not happening.

Perhaps part of it is that they're waiting to see if Continental or AC gets in to the island before they try and set up shop in more American markets. You wouldn't want to start up a route only to have it significantly undercut by Continental.
 
I dunno about Philly but Washington works better as a destination from Ottawa not YTZ. There's lots of government, industry and NGO traffic between Ottawa and Washington. Between Toronto and Washington, not so much.
 
That is probably true for the District of Columbia but the opposite is likely true for the surrounding area which has a lot of businesses which would likely have greater ties to Toronto.
 
kEiThZ said:
I dunno about Philly but Washington works better as a destination from Ottawa not YTZ. There's lots of government, industry and NGO traffic between Ottawa and Washington. Between Toronto and Washington, not so much.
Click to expand...

Also sports travel.....there are NHL teams in Ottawa and Washington.....I bet that spurs some travel.
 
It's really interesting too see how much they continue to go for new Canadian destinations when for the longest time when I was there the talk was always "we'll be in Boston, Washington and Philly really soon". Only Boston happened. That sends a real message to potential investors when they go public that the US routes aren't doing what they expected them to do.
Click to expand...

I suspect that what has happened was that they have reacted to the changing conditions since they first made their business plan. A number of things have happened since early 2006 that created new opportunities and reduced the opportunities in other areas.

These are my guesses of what has happened:

- the US economy went south (more than Canada) which led to fewer Americans traveling
- Windsor was on the short list, but the auto industry collapsed and not many people wanted to fly to Windsor anymore
- Canjet left the scheduled airline business, taking capacity out of the Atlantic Canada market
- destinations like Halifax and Mt Tremblant started out as experiments that were not in the business plan and ended up being more successful than expected
- several Canadian airports offered really good deals to encourage Porter to come in
- they wanted to ensure that the facilities were in place (new terminal) to handle the traffic before entering new US markets -- first impressions for new customers is very important and there isn't the word of mouth in the US that there is in Canada
- it may have been more expensive/difficult to get slots at the preferred airports in the US than they wanted
- they may have held off US expansion until preclearance is in place
- Chicago hasn't been as successful as hoped. I think Newark and Boston have been pretty good though (although I haven't been to either).

If I was an investor, I would be seeing a company that has responded well to changing market conditions in an economy where all the other airlines have had real trouble.

EDIT: The Air DB is reporting that Porter will soon be offering Montreal to Halifax flights.
 
Last edited:
^ All of that is correct, except I doubt that the cost of the slots in Philly and Washington are as bad as Newark. I think the lack of US expansion is because of the economy and because they've done a poor job of selling the airline in the US. I guess for me, as someone who worked there, my impressions of the company are a bit different because I've seen how it has worked internally, and I've seen and heard a lot more than what is said in public. To me, the fact they aren't in some of these other US markets is somewhat significant in my mind. That's why I'm wondering if the business plan has changed to become more of a Canadian model, than a model based around Toronto with American penetration. Is there more growth potential by using Ottawa, Montreal or Halifax as a more significant hub than there is investing money and effort in some of these US cities that don't guarantee a return on investment? Probably, but I wonder how this changes the appearance of the company for potential investors. To me, they need to compete in the US to be a company that sets itself apart from WJ and AC, and once you get off the Island, there's not much that separates them really.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top