Porter Airlines will defer its restart date to 11 February 2021 as Canadian business travel continues to slump.
The regional airline, which partners with major carriers including JetBlue and Qatar Airways, operates out of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. Prior to the pandemic, Porter served 16 domestic destinations from Toronto, in addition to 5 cities in the US, with a fleet of Dash 8-400 turboprops. It paused operations on 21 March as it watched business travel, its primary market, evaporate.
“Deferring service until 2021 is not a decision we anticipated having to make as Covid-19 emerged early this year,” said Michael Deluce, CEO, Porter Airlines. “Unfortunately, the continued and cumulative effects of restrictive travel advisories, border closures and quarantines have suffocated travel demand to the point that a return to sustainable levels of passenger traffic is highly unlikely in 2020.”
Last month, Bill Blair, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety, announced that the US-Canada border will remain shut to non-essential travel until 21 November. This marks the seventh extension since the border was closed in March. Canada has recorded over 268,000 cases of Covid-19 to date, compared with over 10 million cases in the US.
“[Our] full aircraft fleet has been maintained and specific scheduling details will be confirmed in the lead up to flights returning,” said the airline in a statement to Business Traveller.
Porter will waive change and cancellation fees on flights booked until 11 February.
