Porter Airlines Pushes Re-Start Date All The Way to February 11, 2021
November 9, 2020 ctn_admin
Citing ongoing travel restrictions that are affecting customer demand and increasing cases of COVID-19, Porter Airlines says it’s pushing back its planned restart date all the way to Feb. 11.
The Toronto-based company ceased flying last March 21, which means it could be facing a nearly year-long suspension of service.
That affects not only airline owners and workers, but also cleaners, caterers, hotels, restaurants and many others in the travel/tourism/hospitality industries.
“Deferring service until 2021 is not a decision we anticipated having to make as COVID-19 emerged early this year,” said Michael Deluce, president and CEO of Porter Airlines. “Every delay to restarting flights has the greatest effect on our team members, who are eager to do their part to help serve customers under safe conditions.
“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.”
Planning a restart after the traditionally slow post-holiday January period, provides a reasonable opportunity to begin flying if conditions improve. This also gives more time for the development of rapid testing solutions as a promising means to lift government-imposed restrictions on travel, officials said.
Porter’s previous re-start date had been listed as December 15.
Porter temporarily suspended operations on March 21, due to COVID-19.
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