Porter trims flights to NYC

[Kip Powick]

Toronto’s Porter Airlines is trimming its flight schedule to New York City because of measures being taken at Newark Liberty International Airport to ease congestion.

Porter said today that, as of June 20, it will fly six return flights a day between Toronto’s City Centre Airport and Newark, down from a previous seven. There will be an additional three return flights on Saturday and five return flights on Sunday.

The total number of flights per week will drop to 38 from 40.

Robert Deluce, Porter’s CEO, said the new schedule was the result of discussions with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

“We’re pleased that our discussions with the FAA have allowed Porter to do its part in reducing congestion while resulting in a Newark schedule that balances the needs of our weekday business travellers and provides more choice for the extremely popular weekend leisure flights,” Deluce said in a statement.

Deluce had previously warned that Porter’s Toronto to New York service may not be viable because of FAA restrictions that he claimed would effectively cut the number of round-trip weekday flights to five per day. That’s because some flights leaving Newark were to be bumped until later in the evening, which could force Porter to cancel them entirely because of the island airport’s restrictions on late-night operations.

Porter’s service to New York is aimed primarily at business travellers who demand a choice of daily departure times to accommodate their busy schedules.

Passengers whose bookings will need to be changed because of the new flight schedule will be contacted and booked on the closest available flight at no extra charge, Porter said.

Edited to add the Globe and Mail version

Porter Airlines Inc. said Tuesday that it will be boosting weekend service between Toronto and Newark, N.J., after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ordered it to scrap four daily prime-time flights this summer between the two cities.

The upstart carrier's business plan originally called for it to target business travellers on weekdays, but Porter president Robert Deluce said he's shifting his strategy to bolster weekend leisure traffic.

“We're pleased that our discussions with the FAA have allowed Porter to do its part in reducing congestion while resulting in a Newark schedule that balances the needs of our weekday business travellers and provides more choice for the extremely popular weekend leisure flights,” Mr. Deluce said in statement Tuesday. “In addition, we're also in a position to improve our Montreal service at a time when passenger levels are growing substantially.”

With the FAA clamping down on peak-hour travel, Porter said that its “passengers flying at different times based on the revised Newark schedule will be contacted and accommodated on the closest available flight at no additional charge.”

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Porter said its new schedule “features six return flights every weekday, three return flights Saturday and five return flights Sunday. Total flights per week change to 38 from 40.”

The FAA had rejected Porter's argument that a scaled-down schedule would violate the U.S.-Canada open skies pact.

“The U.S.-Canada open skies agreement requires the FAA to accord fair and equal, not preferential, treatment,” the U.S. regulator said in its ruling.

It's crucial for the FAA to take steps to help reduce “persistent congestion and delays” this summer at Newark Liberty International Airport, according to the ruling.

Porter, with home base at Toronto City Centre Airport, said this month that the U.S.-Canada open skies pact stresses the importance of allowing more aircraft to fly to new destinations, and that the marketplace should dictate “the level of service, fares and competition in the U.S.-Canada markets.”

But the FAA said its “final order” on Newark will take effect this summer. Porter previously said the new rules could effectively restrict it to operating at Newark between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Toronto's island airport has an 11 p.m. curfew, making it unworkable to fly out of New Jersey late at night, the carrier emphasized.

Porter launched operations in October, 2006, by flying between Toronto and Ottawa. The carrier has expanded since then, including starting its Toronto-Newark service on March 31 this year, triggering a price war with Air Canada on the route.

Mr. Deluce had been seeking permission for prime slots this summer to land at Newark at 5:30 p.m. and depart at 6:30 p.m. But the FAA said it is keen to avoid summer travelling chaos in the New York area, and is concerned that delays at three major airports in the region would send ripples across the United States.

Briefing notes by Porter indicate that it budgeted about $3-million for an advertising campaign, promoting the Toronto-Newark service to “time-sensitive business travellers,” in major daily newspapers in Canada and the United States.

“Porter's reputation is at stake in this decision as we have advertised this service and created an expectation which we must now fulfill,” the airline said in the notes, prepared for the FAA to consider before it made its ruling. “The result of any reduction to the previously approved schedule will have a very serious financial impact on Porter” during “a critical stage in its development.”

Air Canada and Houston-based Continental Airlines compete on the route between Toronto and Newark, but the larger rivals do not stand to lose any of their slots during “oversubscribed” peak travelling hours, Porter complained.

Montreal-based Air Canada, which is slated to enjoy grandfathering provisions protecting its New Jersey slots, said it “generally supports” the FAA's efforts to control delays at Newark.

Privately owned Porter, which operates Bombardier Q400 turboprops, estimates that it has sold 25,000 seats on the Toronto-Newark route.

[dagger]

“We’re pleased that our discussions with the FAA have allowed Porter to do its part in reducing congestion"...

This is perhaps the funniest thing I have heard come out of an airline executive's mouth in some time...

[Seeker]

This is perhaps the funniest thing I have heard come out of an airline executive's mouth in some time...

I agree! You beat me to it Dagger - I just about fell out of my chair when I read this spin.....nice try Bob!

[yul07]

Funny or not they only lost 2 slots. Could have been much worse.

[dagger]

Funny or not they only lost 2 slots. Could have been much worse.

The key is the departure time of the lost slots.

Right now, on the website, they have zeroed out the most advantageous takeoff time from EWR. They now have no flight between 4 p.m. and 8.45 p.m. Since you'd have to leave mid-town Manhattan at 2 p.m. (maybe 15-20 minutes later from around Penn Station) to get to the 4 p.m. flight comfortably, most business people will have to wait around until the 8:45 p.m. flight. Southbound, from YTZ, they have nothing between 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., which is not as bad. Air Canada, in contrast, has a northbound flight from Newark at 6:10 p.m., which is perfect for a day trip. It also has a flight at 8:10 p.m. So if a Porter customer misses the 4 p.m. flight to YYZ, he'll spend almost five hours waiting for the next Porter flight, during which time he will watch AC J and status customers roll out of the lounge and board not one but two flights to YYZ.

[better4me]

I wonder when the first "wrong airport" situation will turn up on The Star.

I can see it now, hurried exec has his 6:10pm return flight cancelled and admin assistant advises him of situation. Rather than waiting around EWR for the 8:45pm flight, he yells at her to book AC on the return.

The admin assistant decides to stick it to said exec (cause he's being a PITA) and fail to mention the change of airports on the return.

Exec writes letter to editor advising of poor service on AC because they refused to fly him into YTZ or arrange limo for the trip home. "Nobody was willing to help me out!!! Next time I'm flying WestJet!!"

[Seeker]

Exec writes letter to editor advising of poor service on AC because they refused to fly him into YTZ or arrange limo for the trip home. "Nobody was willing to help me out!!! Next time I'm flying WestJet!!"

To make this really realistic the exec should say something about AC being a crown corporation and asking why he's paying all these taxes when he doesn't even get the service he wants.