Porter Airlines pushes tentative restart date to June

Porter Airlines has once again pushed back the date it hopes to return its planes to the skies.

Michael Deluce, Porter’s president and CEO, said in a statement the airline had set its sights on June 21 as its new tentative restart date. The previous target was May 19.

Deluce said the decision was made in the hopes that travel restrictions in Canada and the US will be relaxed by early summer as vaccination programs ramp up in both countries.

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“We recognize that short-term public health measures have been enhanced recently in certain jurisdictions,” Deluce said. “At the same time, we are looking ahead to summer and preparing for the possibility of some travel restrictions unwinding.”

“We will begin the process of rebuilding our operations as soon as conditions allow based on government decisions.”

Porter Airlines temporarily suspended its operations on March 21, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While its intended restart date was June 1 of last year, the suspension of flights has been continuously extended.