First off, I've never heard anything but good about Porter as a place to work. They must be the highest paid Q drivers in Canada too.

If they go ahead with these expansion plans, it seems to me they either A) start a price war with WJ/AC which they'd inevitably lose, or B) get bought out by one of said airlines.

If the latter happens, what would be the likely outcome for the pilots?

Given their current short to midterm outlook, would you make a move to fly for Porter right now?

They are not the highest paid Q4 pilots in Canada. However, respect to them for having maintained a somewhat reasonable bar compared to the other 2.

sstaurus wrote:If they go ahead with these expansion plans, it seems to me they either A) start a price war with WJ/AC which they'd inevitably lose, or B) get bought out by one of said airlines.

If A happens, don't forget that Porter has successfully competed in the "golden triangle" for the last 7 years. Porter is number 2 in that market in terms of passenger numbers, and doing just fine. I would agree with your assessment if Porter was based at Pearson, but the island airport gives it an operational advantage for those travelling to downtown Toronto.

If B happens, whoever buys them would be paying a huge premium for the slots into YTZ as well, since those are what are really the most valuable asset Porter has. Therefore, it would only make sense that the buyer continues to utilize those slots, otherwise they go to other competing airlines. So I'd guess that the YTZ based flying jobs are relatively secure if Porter gets bought out.

sstaurus wrote:Given their current short to midterm outlook, would you make a move to fly for Porter right now?

That depends on how you believe this industry will evolve in the next few years...

sstaurus wrote:First off, I've never heard anything but good about Porter as a place to work. They must be the highest paid Q drivers in Canada too.

If they go ahead with these expansion plans, it seems to me they either A) start a price war with WJ/AC which they'd inevitably lose, or B) get bought out by one of said airlines.

If the latter happens, what would be the likely outcome for the pilots?

Given their current short to midterm outlook, would you make a move to fly for Porter right now?

I think there are a lot more scenarios than just your A or B, and no one has a crystal ball.

just work wrote: I think there are a lot more scenarios than just your A or B, and no one has a crystal ball.

If you have an offer on the table, or think you might - go for it. Why speculate about the possibilities, especially when you are at a 703/704 company? Just go and get a Q-400 rating and some time on type. Worst case scenario, they do go TU. Now you've got a Type Rating and some hours in the logbook. You can theorize all you want about the future of every company in Canada. Make the best lifestyle decision you can with the facts you have. Leave the possible board room deals to those in management.

Thanks for the opinions, that's all I was looking for. I realize nothing is a sure deal. Just trying to weigh some pros and cons in my head! Cheers.

Porter is a great company to work for. As stated above if you got nothing else, go for it. Great professional regional flying with a great aircraft.

sanjet wrote:Porter is a great company to work for. As stated above if you got nothing else, go for it. Great professional regional flying with a great aircraft.

well said....Porter's basically on Jazz's payscale without the extensive benefits etc which should make us #2 on the total compensation. As for the future.....In 5 weeks we'll find out if the regional flying will become transcontinental flying and beyond. 2015 is going to be crazy.

365TAS wrote:

sanjet wrote:Porter is a great company to work for. As stated above if you got nothing else, go for it. Great professional regional flying with a great aircraft.

well said....Porter's basically on Jazz's payscale without the extensive benefits etc which should make us #2 on the total compensation. As for the future.....In 5 weeks we'll find out if the regional flying will become transcontinental flying and beyond. 2015 is going to be crazy.

Game on!!!!!

transcontinental, do you mean panamerican : you may have to do a fuel stop in BIRK to reach London city, or via YYT.
other than that, you'll be able to cover all the Caribbeans and not much further, but winter coming, that's south enough.

transcontinental
adj
1. crossing a continent
2. on or from the far side of a continent. Such as flying from Toronto to Vancouver or Los Angeles.

trans·at·lan·tic  
adj.
1. Situated on or coming from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
2. Spanning or crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Such as flying from yyt to London city.

peanut gallery
n.
1. The hindmost or uppermost section of seating in a theater balcony, where the seats are cheapest.
2. A group of people whose opinions are considered unimportant:

nothing to get too much excited about, not too long ago it was considered domestic flight.

anyway that's a good milestone for porter...

Yeah, I think long term, Porter will do just fine...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/tra ... e15161770/

Valhalla wrote:Yeah, I think long term, Porter will do just fine...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/tra ... e15161770/

Good on Porter. I haven't had a lot of experience with them but what I did was very good indeed.

Valhalla wrote:Yeah, I think long term, Porter will do just fine...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/tra ... e15161770/

No disrespect, Porter has a great product, but such a survey has absolutely no bearing on the long-term prospects. All it does is validate the current inflight product. If Porter disclosed their load factors, potential candidates might have a better idea of how Porter might be doing.

We'll all be flying C-Series.

It's good to have dreams.

Dh8Classic wrote:We'll all be flying C-Series.

Hopefully they'll come with an off-road kit and a steerable floatation device

For the peeps at Porter, Do you think the current "gong show" at city hall will have any bearing on City Council's decision for Jets at YTZ. ie: a delay to their decision, change in outcome of their decision. If Ford is no longer the mayor do they still have their "pull" with city council? Just wondering what you guys think?

I don't think you'll see jets out of the island. Even if they do extend the runway to 5000' as proposed, I can't see it being long enough unless the C Series has some amazing STOL capabilities we don't know about. Deluce likely wants it extended just for the Q400s. He can sell his delivery slots on the C's and make a profit later on.

My goodness you are so cynical!

Inverted2 wrote:I don't think you'll see jets out of the island. Even if they do extend the runway to 5000' as proposed, I can't see it being long enough unless the C Series has some amazing STOL capabilities we don't know about. Deluce likely wants it extended just for the Q400s. He can sell his delivery slots on the C's and make a profit later on.

You would think if this were his plan he would have just asked for an extension and avoided %90 of the controversy associated with Porterplans.com. He could have always bought the delivery slots under another company and sold them when there was demand. If the extension is approved, Porter will be flying the CS100 out of CYTZ.

Inverted2 wrote:I don't think you'll see jets out of the island. Even if they do extend the runway to 5000' as proposed, I can't see it being long enough unless the C Series has some amazing STOL capabilities we don't know about. Deluce likely wants it extended just for the Q400s. He can sell his delivery slots on the C's and make a profit later on.

I tend to wonder about that length of runway and contaminated runways dealing with a jet, but defiantly got a chuckle seeing 5000' and STOL in the same sentence.

Sorry to hijack the topic.

Cheers

The runway at CYTZ is rarely if ever contaminated and there is talk of having it grooved when/if the extension gets approved

Rarely ever contaminated? Really?.... rarely ever any snow, water accumulation, ice, or slush? Whats your definition of rarely?