Porter Pushes Restart to End of March
COVID-19 has forced the Canadian regional carrier to remain grounded for over a year
Toronto-based carrier Porter Airlines has announced that the surge in COVID-19 cases has once again forced it to postpone the resumption of its operations. The airline said it is moving its restart to March 29.
Previously Porter had anticipated a target date of Feb. 11 to begin flying again. The latest delay means the carrier, which suspended operations on March 21, 2020, will have been grounded for over a year.
In a statement, Porter’s president and chief executive officer Michael Deluce said, “With the introduction of vaccines, we are more optimistic about determining a date in the near-term to reintroduce flights than at any point since the pandemic began.”
In the meantime, as COVID-19 cases continue to surge and public health officials maintain travel bans and quarantine measures, Deluce said, “more time is needed to assess the vaccine’s influence on current travel restrictions and when it is appropriate to begin operations again. We expect to establish a timeline for this to happen in the first part of 2021.”
Prior to the pandemic, the regional airline served 16 Canadian destinations in addition to five cities in the US from Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, counting among its partners major carriers such as JetBlue and Qatar Airways.
