Porter Eyes New US Routes

[Kip Powick]

Porter Airlines plans to expand its service from Toronto Island Airport down to Myrtle Beach, S.C., among other U.S. destinations, and could start these flights in 2010.

Though Porter president and chief executive Robert Deluce declined to state any sort of launch date – saying neither he nor officials in Myrtle Beach were ready to make a formal announcement – he did say the airline was in "serious discussions" with U.S. partners.

"It's certainly a location we're clearly interested in," Deluce said about Myrtle Beach. "It's an interesting destination – great golfing, great beaches."

He said he also wants his intercity airline to start flying into Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.

Deluce's comments come weeks after the Toronto Port Authority announced it had been in discussions with other airlines interested in staking territory at the downtown airport, popular among business travellers for its intercity routes across Canada, as well as to Boston, Chicago and New York.

There are also growing concerns in some sections of the city about air traffic and whether an increased number of passengers would mean defacing the waterfront with a giant parking lot.

Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick said Porter's expanded routes and new planes were all planned in the past, and did not constitute any sort of declaration about the Island Airport.

Air Canada Jazz, which wants to return to the Island from where it once flew, has dropped a lawsuit against Porter in Ontario Superior Court. The airline is, however, seeking damages for the loss of business resulting from not being able to fly out of the island.

"It's a federally owned facility," Fitzpatrick said.

"We should be able to fly out of there."

Cameron Doerkson, an aerospace analyst at Versant Partners in Montreal, said Porter's expanded routes were unlikely to cause genuine concern for Air Canada.

He said the planned U.S. routes lie outside the "eastern triangle" routes in Canada between Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto, as well as the two prime business destinations in the U.S., New York and Boston.