Neha Jain: http://canadaaviationnews.blogspot.com/26

Porter Airlines calls itself Canada's third-largest scheduled carrier. President and CEO Robert Deluce leads the company, which is based in Toronto.

1. Airline staff fear for jobs
WINNIPEG - Scores of Winnipeg's Air Canada staffers held a rally Friday over fears for their jobs and for thousands of others.

About 80 of the unionized airplane maintenance employees at a St. James hangar gathered outside the complex to hear Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North) tell them he's pushing the federal Conservative government to protect their livelihoods.

"Manitoba cannot afford to lose these types of jobs," he told media.

The workers claim the airline and another firm maintaining its planes, Aveos Fleet Performance Inc., plan to move their work to El Salvador or possibly other countries. They say the change would kill at least 500 jobs in Winnipeg and a few thousand positions in other Canadian cities.

Lorne Hammerberg, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 714, said the groundwork for the move was laid in the past few years when Air Canada "hived off" its technical services to Aveos, "a whole different entity" with facilities in Canada and El Salvador.

"They've told us in the past that there is no future for heavy maintenance in Canada," he said. "If it's not happening today, it's going to happen down the road."

Aveos spokesman Michael Kuhn said he's "quite surprised at this whole allegation" after the company has repeatedly assured the employees for four years that it's not moving their work away.

"Work from El Salvador has actually come to Canada," he said from Montreal. "Not the other way around."

2. Porter Airlines coming to Windsor

Porter Airlines is expected to offer three flights a day to Toronto out of Windsor Airport by late April.

The announcement will be made today, said a source who didn't want to be named.

The city has been trying to attract more airlines to fly out of its Windsor International Airport for years.

Porter Airlines, which calls itself Canada's third-largest scheduled carrier, is based at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, where it recently opened a new $49-million terminal and introduced many new routes.

In addition to Toronto, the airline serves Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Moncton, Halifax, St. John's, Thunder Bay, Sudbury, New York, Chicago and Boston. It also has seasonal flights to Mt. Tremblant, Que., and Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Its flights to Toronto would put the airline in competition with Air Canada, which offers six flights out of Windsor daily on weekdays.

Porter Airlines will join four other air carriers at Windsor Airport including Air Canada, WestJet with flights to Calgary, Sunwing with seasonal flights to Cuba and the Dominican Republic, and Cameron Air with winter flights to Pelee Island.

When The Star reported in November that Porter might be coming to town, Windsor Airport CEO Federica Nazzani said the airline would likely start with flights to Toronto. She said service to other destinations could be added if the demand was there.

At that time, Nazzani said the airport had been discussing opportunities with Porter for more than two years.

She said the airline's arrival would be beneficial because Windsor and Essex County residents account for 1.4 million annual flights, but the local airport only sees about seven per cent of that traffic.

Many people fly out of Detroit and Toronto, she said.

Porter Airlines has expanded in the last few years and has ordered up to 10 new aircraft, potentially increasing its fleet to 30 by 2012. Four new planes are expected by the spring. The airline flies 70-seat Bombardier Aerospace Q400 turboprop airplanes.

3. UPDATE: Air Canada Shares Fall After Big Holder Sells Shares
TORONTO (Dow Jones)--Air Canada (AC.B.T) shares fell more than 3% on heavy volume Friday, as rising fuel prices spooked investors.

A big unidentified shareholder sold 9%, or 21 million, of its Class B shares in a block trade executed by Canaccord Capital, according to FactSet.

"The stock is reacting to the current fuel-price environment," says RBC Capital Markets analyst Walter Spracklin, who downgraded the stock to sector perform ...

4. Canada bars entry to Indian Airlines hijacker
Toronto: Canada has refused to re-admit the mastermind of the 1984 Indian Airline hijacking who was deported to India last year.

Parminder Singh Saini, 47, who was the leader of five Sikh militants who hijacked the Srinagar-Delhi flight to Lahore July 6, 1984, had filed a plea in a federal court Feb 3 to seek re-entry into Canada.

However, in its ruling Feb 9, the court dismissed Saini's plea, deeming him a threat to public security, according to a report.

He led the five militants in hijacking the Indian Airlines flight to Lahore, with 255 passengers.

The hijack drama ended after a 17-hour stand-off, with the hijackers surrendering to the Pakistani authorities.

After a trial in Pakistan, Saini was sentenced to death by a Lahore court. But the death sentence was commuted to life term. He was released after 10 years and asked to leave Pakistan.

In 1995, Saini entered Canada illegally under the name of Balbir Singh with a fake Afghan passport arranged by the Pakistanis. He maintained that he lied about his identity for fear of being deported to India.

After his arrival here, he earned a BA degree and a law degree even as he fought his deportation order.

Later, Saini applied to the Law Society of Upper Canada to be allowed to practice. But his application was turned down on grounds of his criminal background even as he regretted his past and said he deserves a shot at life in this country.

Referring to the 1984 hijacking, he had said, "I had no legitimate right to do that. It's not legal."

Based on his terrorist past and lying about his identify, the Law Society ruled that Saini has failed to prove that he is a man of good character and thus doesn't deserve to practice in Canada.

Before his deportation, Saini was attached to his brother's immigration consultancy firm Singh and Associates based in Mississauga on the outskirts of Toronto.

NEHA JAIN

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