Deluce soars with Porter Airlines.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: Robert Deluce - Company overview

In his teens, Robert Deluce was a familiar sight in the skies over Northern Ontario.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

As a pilot in his family-run business, White River Air Service, during the late 1960's and 70s, he was flying in hunters, fishermen and prospectors into remote lakes and outposts.

Today, as the CEO of Porter Airlines, Deluce is on familiar ground at Toronto Island Airport back where he began taking flying lessons in 1966 to earn his private pilot's licence at 17.

In mid-March, while speaking with Northern Ontario Business by phone, he was watching two of his Bombardier Q-400 turboprops touch down from Ottawa and Montreal and taxi up to the new passenger terminal at the refurbished Toronto City Centre airport.

Now in his mid 50's and the son of a famous Northern Ontario aviation family, his new regional airline took off last October amid howls of protest and calls for boycotts. A group of local residents with Toronto Mayor David Miller and Trinity-Spadina MP Olivia Chow were fighting Porter over concerns about noise and air pollution in the downtown core.

The fledgling air carrier is marketing itself as a customer-focused and upscale alternative to its bare-bones competitors with complimentary in-flight beverages and light meals, leather seats, more leg room, shuttle bus service and lounge perks for the business traveller.

As of March, Porter was flying 38 return flights daily between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, with ambitious plans to expand their fleet and add new destinations.

Though some industry analysts say it's not the right time to start a new carrier with high fuel prices, worries over a sagging U.S. economy and the demise of Jetsgo and CanJet Airlines, Deluce argues otherwise saying it's an "excellent time to launch."

He's fully confident Porter can weather the industry's cyclical turns explaining his company is "extremely well financed," with a reported $125 million in investor equity and partly because of their choice of fuel-efficient aircraft, the 70-seat Bombardier Q 400's.

The aircraft burns 30 to 40 per cent less fuel than a comparable regional or narrow-bodied jet. Deluce sys the fuel efficiency allows them to fly into smaller markets with reduced passenger load factors that others wouldn't even consider.

"The economics are such that quite a low load factor still results in us being profitable."

Porter has aggressive plans to expand flights into more destinations in Canada and the U.S. over next few years, including...