Well, we
had quite the flight delay with Porter Airlines yesterday. Our flight to Billy Bishop from Thunder Bay
was supposed to depart at 11:10 am and when all was said and done it did not
leave until nearly 6:00 pm meaning that from start to finish our trip to
Hamilton in the end took twelve hours.
We have traveled to Europe in less.
Indeed, you can drive to Hamilton from Thunder Bay in about 14 hours
straight if you put your mind to it. Still,
compared to others on the packed flight with small children or who were
traveling on tighter schedules to attend weddings or were unable to go back to
their house and spend some time for the extended wait – we were fortunate. And Porter has demonstrated its concern and
sympathy and very quickly emailed us with a 100-dollar voucher each (it came in
at 4:52am this morning) to be used on future bookings with Porter. Based on the length of the delay and the
amount of the compensation, it seems that Porter already complies with the new
proposed Ontario minimum wage at least when it comes to the value of passenger
time.
In the end
the delay was for a “mechanical issue” and as one of the flight attendants who
took the elevator with us at the end of the flight remarked it is better to be
safe than sorry. I agree. Still, this is not the first mechanical delay
with Porter on a flight to or from Thunder Bay that I or other members of my family have
encountered. Indeed, over the last year
there have now been about four such issues involving us with the most recent delay the
longest. In each case, the weather was
excellent and the plane on the tarmac and then suddenly…the dreaded delay due
to a mechanical issue. However, if you
are in Thunder Bay it is even more ominous because Porter Airlines must fly in
the mechanic from Toronto on its next available flight.
Why Porter
airlines and the other two airlines in Thunder Bay (Air Canada and Westjet) who
also fly nothing but Q400s there could not get together to chip in and maintain
one mechanic on a standby contract to service their planes is beyond me. Perhaps the recent announcement from Porter
that they are making Thunder Bay a crew base will also mean they are going to
keep a mechanic and parts on hand. I
hope that is the case because I like flying Porter and the convenient access to
downtown Toronto.
At the same
time, I think Porter has had an awful lot of “mechanical issues” and having so
many really is ultimately their fault. I think they have an aging stock of
aircraft given that the planned beefing up with the C-Series fell through and
they now need to renew their aircraft stock in a very competitive airline
world. It's tough I know. Still, here is the thing. You can’t keep telling people they have a
delay due to mechanical issues. It has
happened often enough to me and my family now that inevitably I am starting to
wonder if an airline with so many mechanical issues is the one I should keep selecting
for my travel. I am already booked on a
few more flights with Porter for the next couple of months but after that maybe
I should shop around more. After all,
better to be safe than sorry.
