Old News? Porter vs WJ in Triangle

[Kip Powick]

Brent Jang/Torstar

Porter Airlines Inc. has gradually become a force in the Toronto-Montreal-Ottawa corridor, overtaking WestJet Airlines Ltd. as the No. 2 player in the region, Versant Partners Inc. analyst Cameron Doerksen said yesterday. Depending on the route, Porter holds more than 20 per cent of seat capacity in the Eastern Triangle, ahead of WestJet's minimum of 14 per cent but well behind Air Canada, with at least 57 per cent, he estimates.

Privately owned Porter, launched in 2006 at Toronto City Centre Airport, now has 12 planes, with eight more on order. "We believe Porter is attracting a meaningful share of Air Canada's higher-yielding business travellers on these routes," Mr. Doerksen said in a research note. He added that Porter's expansion has put a damper on WestJet's push into the Eastern Triangle, noting that "even though WestJet has been very aggressive with its fares in order to attract traffic, it has actually cut back on capacity relative to two years ago."

[blues deville]

Good for Porter!

[Maverick]

Good for Porter!

Huh? History has hardly been kind to (all?) those that have expanded willy-nilly on the eastern triangle!

You must be a Porter-hater!

[blues deville]

Huh? History has hardly been kind to (all?) those that have expanded willy-nilly on the eastern triangle! 

You must be a Porter-hater!

Not at all.

I know several key people at Porter and I wish them only the best. Having flown Dash8s from YTZ with an original downtown to downtown airline many years ago, I know Porter is doing it right and its obvious the business community prefers the frequency and service which Porter is providing.

WS should hammer away at some other markets.

IMHO

[Maverick]

That was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. My point is this. WS has slowly built up the triangle unlike almost every other airline that has entered this AC dominated market. Previously there was Nordair, CAIL, C3000, Jetsgo and now Porter. There were others but it's too early on a Sunday morning for me to remember. They all built frequency rapidly and all but Porter are gone. WS as far as I can recall is the only one that had any discipline in slowly building frequencies.

I suppose only time will tell if Porter can go against the flow and survive in AC's most dominant market but history is 100% against them.

[Super 80]

The difference with Porter is they have greater avenues to differentiate themselves than other competitors do or did by removing themselves from Pearson.

By removing themselves from Pearson they also save on the exorbitant fees levied by the GTAA for the privilege of flying out of their shopping mall and landing fees on the island are low where Porter is their own landlord.

A new entrant at Pearson has no real advantage over Rapidair other than potentially price, on top of that there is Aeroplan - 500 miles isn't much - but ceteris paribus - all other things being equal you might as well take it. I guess you can get upgraded - but on a triangle flight who cares.

With Porter travelers from anywhere can avoid the cesspool that is Pearson, travelers going to or from downtown Toronto save a hefty taxi fare and all of the above benefit from the small perks offered by Porter. A functional terminal with free everything, the inflight meals etc, free shuttle etc.

[blues deville]

That was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. My point is this. WS has slowly built up the triangle unlike almost every other airline that has entered this AC dominated market. Previously there was Nordair, CAIL, C3000, Jetsgo and now Porter. There were others but it's too early on a Sunday morning for me to remember. They all built frequency rapidly and all but Porter are gone. WS as far as I can recall is the only one that had any discipline in slowly building frequencies.

I suppose only time will tell if Porter can go against the flow and survive in AC's most dominant market but history is 100% against them. 

Whatever....internet crap. Hard to tell.

You are correct. however, history will show that once upon a time the mighty AC had a war chest of cash to stop any 'new guys' from starting up in their famous triangle. AC no longer has any spare cash to launch an attack against the latest 'new guy' Porter. Deluce has also eliminated the competition at the source by getting rid of Jazz at YTZ. However you want to call it, Deluce is in control and the business community is responding to the Porter experience.

[AIP]

The difference with Porter is they have greater avenues to differentiate themselves than other competitors do or did by removing themselves from Pearson.

By removing themselves from Pearson they also save on the exorbitant fees levied by the GTAA for the privilege of flying out of their shopping mall and landing fees on the island are low where Porter is their own landlord.

A new entrant at Pearson has no real advantage over Rapidair other than potentially price, on top of that there is Aeroplan - 500 miles isn't much - but ceteris paribus - all other things being equal you might as well take it. I guess you can get upgraded - but on a triangle flight who cares.

With Porter travelers from anywhere can avoid the cesspool that is Pearson, travelers going to or from downtown Toronto save a hefty taxi fare and all of the above benefit from the small perks offered by Porter. A functional terminal with free everything, the inflight meals etc, free shuttle etc.

A huge advantage AC has and has always had is the ability to recover from Irops.

Whether it is a snow storm or red-alert, the ability to add or upguage equipment is something that should not be underestimated.

Frequency, (hourly in the triangle in most case) and ability to go to smaller equipment in the off-peak period is important to the viability as well.

[Spinnaker]

A huge advantage AC has and has always had is the ability to recover from Irops.

Whether it is a snow storm or red-alert, the ability to add or upguage equipment is something that should not be underestimated.

Frequency, (hourly in the triangle in most case) and ability to go to smaller equipment in the off-peak period is important to the viability as well.

Yes -Christmas 2008... AC should write the manual on IROPS after that one! Cancel 90% of the flights and don't even push them off the gates for every other airline still operating.

[CanadaEH]

But they sure did recover.

[Fido]

.... and don't even push them off the gates for every other airline still operating.

Where were they going to push them too?

[sjsa]

push them to the pads to start

I think Porter has a good product for the triangle. I'm glad we (WestJet) do the bare minimum in those markets. For reasons explained ad nauseam, Air Canada owns those routes.

[sjsa]

AC in the Triangle