Come On Sue-Ann

When it comes to the operation of the the island airport it is not hard to understand why Miller and his left wing flunkies on council, waterfront condo owners and island squatters are still trying to sink Porter Airlines. They as a group have their head up their collective......

Island airport flies high
By SUE-ANN LEVY

I can't understand why Mayor David Miller and his island cronies refuse to throw in the towel and accept a thriving Toronto City Centre Airport.

If His Blondness would come down to earth from his lofty position overseeing his City Hall empire, he'd see the island airport is here to stay.

It would certainly appear upstart Porter Airlines has taken off since it launched 10 weekday round-trip flights out of the island airport to Ottawa last Oct. 23.

On Dec. 11, the airline expanded its route to Montreal with four weekday return flights. Earlier this week, the service was increased once again to nine round-trip flights to Montreal each weekday and a half-dozen such flights on the weekend.

Porter CEO Bob Deluce told me yesterday things are "working very well." In two short months even the flights to Ottawa are almost at where they'd predicted they'd be after six months of operation.

He said the airplane breaks even when it's about 30% full and they are "well above that."

Deluce said it's proving to be a "good service" for the type of clientele they appeal to -- the "time-sensitive business traveller."

Still he was amazed to see that over the Christmas holiday period -- a time when they thought business would be slow -- a lot of leisure travellers climbed aboard, flying to visit friends and family. "They were finding the downtown location equally attractive ... they could get here by subway to Union Station," he said.

They've created 230 jobs at the airport (plus the spinoffs), they've just taken delivery of their fourth 70-seat Q400 plane from Bombardier and if Deluce can get another two airplanes quicker than the anticipated delivery at the end of this year, New York is "likely to be the next destination" with Boston and Chicago ranking close behind.

To me, Porter's apparent success so far would be enough to convince the Millerites to call it a day. After all, any reasonable mayor and council (except perhaps an NDP-leaning one) would want to boost business in this city.

They also hardly derived the endorsement they were seeking from the long-awaited review of the Toronto Port Authority and its handling of the airport disputes by Roger Tasse.

In his report last November, Tasse affirmed federal control of the authority and laid the blame on city council for the $35-million in legal payouts made to settle claims over the cancelled fixed-link bridge to the island airport.

The Toronto Board of Trade also came out with a strongly worded report prior to Christmas urging the TPA and the city to settle its long-running dispute and work together.

Board of Trade spokesman Glen Stone says their three-member task force talked to a lot of people involved with the revitalization of the waterfront and were told a healthy airport would not at all impede plans for the waterfront.

"We believe the airport can contribute to Toronto's economic development," he said, pointing to the direct job creation benefits and its ability to provide a "niche" of air travellers with more efficient air travel and shorter wait times.

"The airport is here and not about to disappear," he added.

But Bill Freeman of Community Air said they're "never going to give up" their fight. They hope to make it a federal election issue, although he conceded the Tasse report (a "patent giveaway to Deluce") has weakened their political arguments.

They continue to protest every Friday in front of the airport's gates. "We have a lot of support out there," he said.

Deluce looks at it quite differently. He's even gotten calls from mayors in Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins and other cities to talk about expanding Porter to their neck of the woods.

"I still come from the point of view that what we're doing is good for Toronto ... it's a good news story," he said. "When will he (Miller) wake up and endorse this ... any other mayor in the world would."