Porter Airlines Swot Analysis Essay

TCAA (Billy Bishop City Airport) – The location of this airport, combined with the TCAA/Porter strategic partnership offered significant advantages to Porter. Owning airport infrastructure allowed Porter to better handle operational coast and better control the customer experience. Fleet – Only using a single aircraft (Bombardier Q400 with 35%) resulted in cost savings in maintenance, training, employee pay rate and airport fees. Amenities – In flight and airport value-added services fortify Porter’s brand help attract target market. Weakness Brand Awareness in America – Porter’s international strength lies in Canadian customers flying to the U.S. It is much more costly to attract American passengers heading to Canada. Developing awareness in the U.S. could be very costly. No U.S. customs pre-clearance – passengers must pass through customs upon arrival. This can cause delays and inconvenience to customers. Opportunities Customer Loyalty – The highly flexible fare structure Porter offers to customers is very appealing to business travelers who need to travel on short notice and often rearrange their travel plans. Porter also offers the VIPorter customer reward program. Free travel is very appealing to frequent travelers. Corporate Focus – Combine with large companies whose employees travel frequently. Offer these companies a reduced price and high frequency of flights based on certain popular business routes. Threats Competition – Air Canada has sufficient market share to attempt to undercut Porter and push it out of the market by using very low prices and frequent –flyer programs much like they did against City Express in the early 1990’s. Generating Capital – Growth requires enormous capital in the Airline industry. As a private company, Porter’s financial performance is unknown. This could make it very difficult to raise capital without releasing important performance information. Air Canada Law Suit – A federal court is to rule on whether or not Jazz was pushed off of the Island Unfairly. If Jazz is permitted to return to the island they could compete directly with Porter and will likely undercut Porter as they did with City Express.