Porter denies report it’s seeking a buyer
Posted February 10, 2016 8:27 am.
Last Updated February 10, 2016 8:29 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Porter Airlines says it’s not looking for a buyer, despite a report in The Globe and Mail.
The newspaper reports that the company has been looking for a buyer for a while. However, in a written statement to 680 NEWS, the company denied the report.
Porter Airlines also says it’s positioning itself for a future initial public offering.
In November, the federal government decided to against an expansion of the island airport in downtown Toronto.
The Liberals rejected a request from Porter to renegotiate an airport agreement among the City of Toronto, Ports Toronto and the federal government to extend the runway at Billy Bishop airport to allow jets to land.
The decision was based on concerns from many voters in Toronto about what an airport expansion would mean for the future of the city’s waterfront.
The decision made earlier this month goes beyond concerns about noise from larger planes landing at the island airport, Transport Minister Marc Garneau said at the time.
The Ontario Progressive Conservatives, the Opposition in the provincial legislature, have said the decision will hurt the local, provincial and national economies.
In 2013, Porter placed an order worth US$870 million for a dozen of the 110- to 125-seat CSeries aircraft on the condition that they would be allowed to fly into the island airport.
If Porter walks away from the order, it would deal a blow to Montreal-based Bombardier, which has been scrambling to sell its CSeries jets but hasn’t secured an order in more than a year.
Analyst Chris Murray of AltaCorp Capital said there’s a slim chance Porter could use the CSeries jets to fly from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport or other airports within its network. But the Toronto island airport was a critical component of the CSeries order for Porter, Murray said.
