Porter Airlines adjusts planned restart date to Feb. 11

Porter Airlines is updating its planned restart date for flights to Feb. 11, due to increasing COVID-19 cases and ongoing travel restrictions affecting customer demand.

"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.

Porter temporarily suspended operations on March 21, due to COVID-19.