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jn_12 said:
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.
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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.
 
Wouldn't it be Colgan Air running the route under contract for Continental? Very different cost structure. Plus, I know if the prices were competitive I would connect through them trying to go to Europe or further afield in the USA instead of going to Pearson.
 
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.
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I would be surprised if Continental has any real interest in trying to strangle Porter as they only barely compete with them on a few routes, especially if it would cost them cash to do so. Serving YTZ would be primarily to feed people into their larger network, which Porter can't really do. With the planes that Porter uses, there is no real danger of Porter of stealing too much of their overall business, beyond short-distance point to point travel.

In fact, there is a real danger that by opening up new routes to the US, Continental could create/grow new markets by raising awareness in those markets of the benefits of the island airport. Porter could then benefit from this when they move into those markets themselves.

Of course, Air Canada would like Porter to go away, so perhaps they could bribe Continental to actively try to swamp Porter in return for something else.
 
Porter is expanding again beyond its YTZ base with flights from Montreal to Halifax($129) with connections on to St. John's ($159). Twice daily over the summer dropping to 4 times a week in the fall (one each on Thursday and Friday and two on Sunday).

EDIT: You can now buy tickets for YTZ-YHZ via YUL. This gives YTZ-YHZ passengers a choice of 6 flights a day in most cases (four through Ottawa and two through Montreal). Connections to St. John's in Halifax from Montreal appear to require an aircraft change and you cannot buy tickets for YTZ-YYT via YUL.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2010/24/c4468.html
 
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I would check your daily paper (Globe and Mail, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, etc) as many/most days they usually have a full page ad. Very often they include information on current seat sales that give 10% or 20% off. Promotional prices are also generally built into the regular fares, especially if you are buying seats a few weeks ahead of time.

Also, you will probably get regular emails from Porter if you sign up for an account on their website and for VIPorter membership. You will want to do before you buy any tickets so that you get credited with VIPorter frequent flyer points.
 
According to this, Porter only needs a 49.3% load factor to break even.

While he did not give details on Porter's actual financial performance in 2009, he said the regional airline was profitable on a "fully allocated basis" from mid-2007 through 2008, issuing profit-sharing cheques to employees for both 2007 and 2008.

He estimated last year's break-even load factor to be 71 per cent at Calgary-based WestJet Airlines and 83 per cent at Montreal-based Air Canada. The 2009 load factor at WestJet was 78.7 per cent while it was 80.7 per cent at Air Canada, the two carriers previously said.
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As well, Porter is considering on how best to expand their fleet

Mr. Deluce said Porter has its hands full now with regional growth prospects, but within a few years, it will mull over acquiring a mid-range jet that would help it compete outside its hub near downtown Toronto against WestJet and Air Canada.

"Longer-term possibilities leave open consideration for a mid-range jet type that could be utilized outside of our Toronto base and capitalize on opportunities beyond the current regional focus, including transcontinental routes," he said, referring to point-to-point flying that doesn't involve landing or taking off in Toronto.
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I wonder if they have their eyes on the Bombardier C-series?

Edit: This is interesting too. It looks like they are going to take some action against their low loads to and from Chicago.

Porter marketing executives reportedly visited several Chicago ad agencies (fewer than five said Cicero) in recent days. Two by Four/Chicago and Zig/Chicago (which has its roots in Toronto) are believed to be among the shops Porter looked at.... Quietly, some Chicago ad executives have questioned whether Porter's current print advertising does a sufficiently good job of conveying the relatively high-end Porter in-flight experience, which includes complimentary beverage service in real glasses and boxed snacks on all flights. The carrier flies modern turboprop planes. "That raccoon maybe isn't the best way to tout what Porter offers," said one local ad executive, a reference to a raccoon character that appears in numerous Porter display ads.
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EDIT: One more article

This article indicates that Canadian airlines are raising fares

Fares at both Air Canada and WestJet Airlines Ltd. have increased 17% and 22% respectively compared to last year, according to Raymond James’ monthly air fare survey.
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What you need through the article to find out is that these increases are in non-Porter parts of the country:

The only notable exception was a $29 fare offered by WestJet on a Toronto-Montreal route compared to $79 last year, which Mr. Cherniasky said is consistent with his belief that Porter Airlines was having a disruptive effect in the so-called Eastern Triangle between Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa....Air Canada will likely see some pricing pressure this spring with Porter plotting an aggressive expansion in the Eastern Triangle, said Cameron Doerksen, Versant Partners analyst. “This is a significant increase in capacity on already well served routes, which is bound to put downward pressure on air fares,” he said in a note to clients. “Given that Air Canada has more capacity committed to these routes, we would expect it to be more impacted than WestJet from Porter’s expansion.”
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Hearings are scheduled for June 6-8 for Air Canada's court challenge to gain 74 slots at the Island (15 times a day to Ottawa and Montreal and 7 to Newark). Porter has 120 and there are expected to be between 42 and 92 new slots available this year. That wouldn't leave a lot for other airlines (like Continental) to use even if the maximum 212 slots were available.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/busi...a+Toronto+Island+challenge/2740639/story.html

Does an airport have an obligation to give all airlines the slots that they want and limit them equally when they run out? Or should an airport be allowed to favour one airline that is prepared to make long-term investments and open up a variety of destination over others that are not (and have shown in the past that they are not) and just want to duplicate existing routes?

Does anyone know how slots are handed out at other slot-limited airports? Do we have any others in Canada?
 
All airports are slot-limited. How slots are allocated depends on what level of the IATA determines is required. There are three levels - level 1, 2 and 3. Level 3 (of which YYZ is one) are airports that have demand exceeding supply, and the IATA's scheduling group coordinates them. For airports not in at the highest level, the airport is left to allocate slots as they see fit, and the IATA will only step in if agreements can't be reached. YTZ is level 1, so I think they can allocate slots as they see fit.
 
Now that they are coming close to their slot limit, can they get YTZ upgraded to Level 3, where Porter would gain protection by the historic slots rule?

http://www.iata.org/NR/rdonlyres/2C1BAA18-6297-4984-A74E-4A6D1F945A55/0/WSG19Edition.pdf
See Section 6.8.1.1

The fact that Air Canada is suing in court for slots would imply that voluntary agreement among the airlines is currently unlikely (potentially disqualifying YTZ from Level 2). Or would they have to go through level 2 and go through the motions of trying to get voluntary agreement before moving on to level 3?
 
One thing I wonder: Is Porter on all the booking systems yet? A lot of people simply count on sites like Expedia and Priceline to book their flights, particularly Americans who don't know about Porter.

I just used both Expedia.ca and the Porter site to book a Porter YTO<>EWR round trip on the same days. $536 on Expedia, $332 on the Porter website.
 
Are both those numbers "after taxes"? I've priced Porter flights occasionally on one travel website or another and they generally came out to the same after everything was included.

EDIT: I just tried Expedia for YTZ-EWR April 13 returning on the 14th, both times on the 6:45am.

It was $120 each way on the Porter website (which turned out to be $360.25). Expedia showed $355 for most of the flights those days ($385 for the last two flights of the day) but the final total ended up $360.22.

Interestingly, the 2nd and 3rd flights of the day out of YTZ showed up as $99 on the Porter website, but showed up as the same price as the 6:45 flight on expedia. So perhaps the lowest fares don't make it onto the search engines?
 
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