After 10 years of serving passengers of all stripes, Porter Airlines is still wanting to do more.

President and CEO Robert Deluce was in Timmins Thursday to celebrate their 5th anniversary of operations at the Timmins Victor M. Power Airport.  He says he’s really happy with what the schedule offers local residents.

“I think our times on flights in the morning and in the evening and throughout the day really do give passengers a good opportunity to connect with a variety of destinations, even somewhere beyond Toronto.”

But of course with thoughts of growing the company further, there’s always hurdles.

Deluce says one of the big ones is how Billy Bishop Airport doesn’t allow the use of whisper-jets.  This is due to noise restrictions, as the airport is situated right in the heart of Downtown Toronto.

Porter is willing to spend around $2.3-billion dollars to get new Bombardier CS100 jetliners.

Deluce says those jets would allow them to handle the job of traveling to new destinations across North America, namely Los Angeles, Vancouver and Miami.

And the change would have a great effect in Timmins.

“Passengers coming out of this area would have an option, an alternative, in terms of how they might get to some of these other long-range destinations.  And we all know when you have choice, it usually means you probably got a more competitive offering.”

While efforts to get clearance have failed thus far, there’s no quit in Deluce and company.

Filed under: Local News