The Greater Sudbury Airport Authority is looking to build a case to actively recruit Porter Airlines to the Nickel City.
A travellers' survey is being circulated in the business community to provide the Toronto-based regional airline with local market facts and figures, and promises of filled seats.
Airport executive director Bob Johnston has met with Porter president Robert Deluce and senior executives a number of times to provide reports on local market information, "but the numbers weren't impressive enough to start service."
The authority is studying it further to support Porter's requirements of a minimum of three flights daily into Sudbury.
The questionnaire was sent out first to local mining companies and industrial suppliers, and eventually will be distributed to the entire community.
It asks about passenger satisfaction with current carriers, their frequency of travel, and asks about a corporate commitment to support a new airline.
Sudbury has been on Porter's radar for some time since the carrier's president/CEO Robert Deluce, a Northern Ontario native, launched the airline in October 2005. The upscale carrier has gained notoriety among business travellers for offering old-fashioned customer service with very competitive air fares from Toronto's Island Airport to Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City and other eastern U.S. cities, including New York. Porter flies the highly fuel efficient 70-seat Bombardier Q400 Dash 8 turboprop aircraft. Deluce told Northern Ontario Business in 2006, he wanted to establish his U.S. routes before turning his attention to Northern Ontario cities.
Of the 184,000 annual visitors passing through Sudbury airport, more than 70 per cent are corporate travellers.
Johnston said introducing another carrier to the Sudbury market won't work if it just cannibalizes passengers from Air Canada Jazz and Bearskin Airlines.
But his studies show room for growth can come from local travellers who drive to Toronto and fly to their destinations from Pearson Airport, largely due to exorbitant air fares out of Sudbury. "We're losing 170,000 people a year to Pearson," said Johnston. "And we haven't brought into the equation how many people do business downtown (in Toronto)."
Johnston sensed the Sudbury corporate crowd is ready to welcome another carrier and there is unquestionably passenger dissatisfaction with existing service.
Some companies have even guaranteed it will fill a set number of seats on annual basis.
Adding another airline is good for the airport's profitable, will make air fares more affordable and is great for consumers, he said.
For details on the survey contact Terra Glabb, the airport's business development director, at 705-693-2514 ex. 234. The deadline for survey feedback is March 20.
