INVESTORS WOULD BE GETTING ... ANXIOUS OVER GROWTH PROSPECTS AT THE AIRLINE.

are all things you have to take into consideration,” he said.

“It ’s a business where there’s always something happening and you can have the very best business plan in place and you still need a certain amount of flexibility.”

Flexibility is something Porter’s business plan has had from the beginning. Before the airline’s launch, it raised $126 million — in the second-largest financing for a new airline after JetBlue Airways Corp., which raised US$130 million for its launch in 2000 — from investors that included GE Asset Management, Dancap Private Equity, EdgeStone Capital Partners and Borealis Infrastructure.

And Porter’s 2015 sale of the Billy Bishop passenger terminal to Nieuport Aviation Infrastructure Partners GP for an undisclosed amount has left the airline debt-free and with significant cash on its balance sheet.

“We have a balance sheet that enables us to finance any reasonable level of modest growth and in due course we’ll move with some expansion plans,” Deluce said.

It’s unclear what those plans will be without the longer-range CSeries jets, which would have significantly expanded the range of destinations Porter could serve from Billy Bishop.

But some growth is still occurring, even without the CSeries. The recent completion of a pedestrian tunnel from the mainland to Billy Bishop has made the airport more accessible, which Deluce credits for Porter’s “very strong year-over-year growth.” (The airline is privately held so it doesn’t release its traffic numbers.)

And Billy Bishop is expected to get U.S. customs pre-clearance soon, which could allow Porter to add flights to New York’s La Guardia Airport and Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., Deluce said.

But those gains may not be enough for Porter’s original investors, who are starting to get “antsy,” according to Kokonis.

“Any remaining initial investors would be getting increasingly anxious over growth prospects at the airline,” he said.

Porter still hasn’ t cancelled its conditional order for up to 30 CSeries jets, although Deluce said people shouldn’t read too much into that, other than it is keeping all of its options open.

“There doesn’t appear to be any immediate appetite for jets from this airport, but if that changes in the future, we’ll obviously be open to having that discussion again,” he said.

Meanwhile, Deluce said he will remain vigilant.

“We’re cognizant of the fact that just because you’ve had a good flight in the morning doesn’t mean you can rest on your laurels in the afternoon.”