PORTER FLIES HIGH

Porter Airlines is set for major expansion after signing a conditional purchase order for 12 Bombardier CS100 aircraft, with options for an additional 18. Delivery of Porter’s first CS100 would be in 2016, making it possible to open up new destinations such as Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Los Angeles, Florida and the Caribbean out of Toronto’s Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. The total purchase price could reach $2.3 billion if all options and purchase rights are exercised. The entire plan is conditional with Porter Airlines requiring the support of the signatories to the Tripartite Agreement — the City of Toronto, the Government of Canada and the Toronto Port Authority — that has governed Billy Bishop airport since 1983. Porter Airlines needs the parties to consider two amendments that would allow the operation of the CS100 aircraft at Billy Bishop – permission to use this model of jet aircraft and a 168-metre extension into water at each end of the existing main runway (which officials say can be accommodated without changes to existing marine boundaries). “We have determined that the CS100 airliner with a 107-seat configuration is the ideal aircraft to operate from our home base at Billy Bishop… and make it possible to open up new destinations,”said Robert Deluce (pictured), president of Porter Airlines. “Bombardier has developed an environmentally friendly, state-of-the-art aircraft that will have a comparable sound level to our existing quiet Q400 turboprops, and offer passengers wider seats, larger windows and more baggage space.”