unimaginative2
Senior Member
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'm not sure if Continental would be able to do it. Porter's cost structure is much more favourable than theirs. Traditionally, big airlines try to strangle low-cost startups in the cradle, slashing prices on the handful of routes the new airline serves and using their other routes to cross-subsidize. Porter is now big enough that it can spread out the cost of a price war across a pretty substantial network.