Media taken for a spin
Porter Airlines struts its stuff for journalists
By ROB GRANATSTEIN, CITY HALL BUREAU
The Porter Airlines media flight yesterday inadvertently turned into a tour of Mayor David Miller's shortcomings.
En route back from a sightseeing tour over Georgian Bay to show off the new airline, the flight path took fliers over the site of the Portlands Energy Centre construction site, Union Station, the waterfront and on to the Island Airport.
Miller fought and lost his bid to stop the province from going ahead with a new mega-powerplant on the Portlands next to the existing Hearn generating plant, saying it would reindustrialize the waterfront.
Under Miller's leadership a deal with Union Pearson to renovate the aging landmark train station fell apart.
ALL CONDOS
The waterfront view is all condos from Yonge St. west, although most were approved before Miller's term.
Then there's the Island Airport itself. It helped sweep Miller into power in 2003. He stopped the bridge to the airport and hoped he'd also stopped Porter from starting up. "The waterfront should be a place for people, not planes," Miller has said repeatedly over the past year.
Instead the $20-million payout to Porter boss Robert DeLuce for the bridge cancellation financed some of the airline, and the new service is set to start Oct. 23 with 10 daily flights to Ottawa.
"I've stopped worrying about the politicians," DeLuce said yesterday. "The politicians come and go. We're concentrating on putting in an airline that's here for the long term."
"This is a very quiet airplane, its approaches are over the water. I think people are going to be very surprised at how this is a non-issue," said Don Carty, Porter's chairman. "And the airport itself is a jewel."
As for the flying experience itself, it is slick, chichi, comfortable and quiet -- unless the winds are heavy.
Our flight turned into a rock 'n' roll ride as high winds battered the 70-seat Bombardier Q400 plane.
LEG ROOM
Inside there's lots of leg room, the service is circa-1960s when flying was a glamorous, dignified way to travel.
DeLuce and Carty said the biggest advantage is time.
"If you're talking about day-tripping to Ottawa, you're looking at saving an hour each way," Carty said, as he ticked off the commute to Pearson, the check-in, security clearance, the time to get to the gate, taxiing to the runway, and lining up for takeoff.
The biggest bonus may be the views of the city on takeoff and landing as the plane scrapes by the skyscrapers.
Porter offers a free shuttle from Union Station to the airport, a fancy lounge with free drinks and Internet access, plus free food, drinks and booze on the aircraft.
Porter unveiled its target cities for expansion. It's looking at Montreal, Chicago's Midway airport, New York, Quebec City, Timmins, Sudbury, Sault St. Marie, Thunder Bay, Detroit, Windsor, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Washington, Philadelphia and Boston.
DeLuce said Montreal will probably come first, and an announcement could come as soon as the end of October, followed by New York and Chicago.
DeLuce said he believes there will be enough travellers to make this new airline fly. He said other airlines flying the Q400 make money with as few as 30% of the seats filled, although he wouldn't reveal his break-even point.
With the flight over, it's back on to the ferry, fresh from its crash the day before.
Throttled by the wind and the waves, the boat inched across the Western Gap, rattled into the dock and stopped.
Porter Airlines is quite a ride from start to finish.
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