Robert Deluce is the President and CEO of Porter Airlines, a regional Canadian airline founded in 2006 and operating out of Toronto to 15 destinations throughout Canada as well as eight direct destinations to the United States. Coupled with partner programs they cover the entire United States and a host of Caribbean destinations. The son of a Hurricane-flying Royal Canadian Air Force pilot, and one of nine siblings, Deluce has worked his way to the top of the airline industry through a combination of savvy dealings, entrepreneurial spirit and sheer determination. We sat down with him to find out more about what makes him tick, his views on management, and his vision for Porter Airlines.
1. What is the most important quality and skill set in terms of leadership as the CEO and president of Porter Airlines?
I don’t think there is any one thing. It’s more about individual leadership style. My style is pretty hands on. I’m a bit of a tire-kicker, so I do like to interact with passengers and our team members. Having said that, over time you do learn to delegate and that is certainly one of those things that is pretty important in any successful company. At Porter Airlines, where we have such a high level of interaction with our passengers, our front line teams have to have a certain level of empowerment and confidence in their decisions to be able to deal effectively with anything that comes up. That is something that we tend to put more and more emphasis on at Porter.
2. Did you always have a passion/interest in aviation?
I had the good fortune to be involved in a family aviation charter hunting and fishing airline from an early age. My parents started an airline in 1951 so we were always around airplanes. I’m one of nine siblings who were all involved in one way or another at some point, so the joy of working in that environment kind of came naturally and I learned to fly as a high-school student at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, where Porter is based today.
3.Have you always had your own businesses or did you work within other aviation businesses/corporations?
I think everyone does odd jobs and such as they develop. I was a flying instructor part time at university, but pretty much every job from that point on had some degree of direct ownership on my part, from involvement in the family business to either starting up, taking over or operating.
4.Did you come from a family of entrepreneurs? Did you just have a vision to start your own airline?
Well, my mother and my father were both pretty entrepreneurial. To start a small hunting and fishing charter airline in Northern Ontario with one aircraft and get to a point where they had some 50 aircraft is pretty entrepreneurial. I actually bought into the company while still at university. I suppose I could have done other things, but being involved at such a young age and being around the planes all the time was a pretty strong pull.
5. What would you say as an entrepreneur were your biggest lessons when building Porter Airlines?
You learn that over time a certain amount of perseverance is absolutely essential. Not everything happens the way you would like to turn out on the first go, so you have to be determined and persistent. Also, whether you’re in the airline business or any other business, I think the age old truth of treating people the way you want to be treated is essential. What goes around comes around, so it’s worth remembering in pretty much anything you do, be it in business or your personal life. And thirdly, I guess is the somewhat old school notion of always being good to your word. I value it in other people and there is value in your word when sticking to commitments. Your credibility is attached to it, so failing to stick to your word can consequently harm that credibility too.
6. Entrepreneurship is such a buzz word with everyone out there wanting to start up their own business but do you think everyone can do this or is for a special type of personality?
I don’t think you can predict whether someone will be successful as an entrepreneur. The one thing you need to remember is that you are responsible for everything that happens, which means that if things need to get done you better be prepared to do it. It’s a bit of hard work and not being afraid to take anything on. You cannot be glass half empty, you want to be glass half full. I think given the opportunity some people will surprise you with their entrepreneurial skills.
7. What would your advice be to entrepreneurs who specifically want to get involved in the aviation industry or tech based start-ups?
I would say don’t do it unless you are 100% committed and passionate about it. If it’s drudgery or a job, you better look for something else. If it’s just a pay cheque, that’s one thing, but who just wants a job? You get tired of a job pretty quickly. If it’s something you don’t have to view as work, you are far more likely to succeed.
8. I see that some of your children work with you. What is it like working with family?
Well, I have been in family businesses before. That includes where all 9 of my siblings were involved, but I’ve never regarded Porter as being a family business. The two sons that are involved in Porter are two out of roughly 75 members of the management team. They are here because they make a contribution to the organization and, in their own right, have established some credibility and some value add. I think any of us that are here, myself included, probably only remain here if we continue to add value. We’re passionate about the business, but we also remain because we are deemed to be making a contribution either by shareholders or directors or other team members.
9. An industry like yours relies on having a strong work force. What leadership quality would you say as CEO is the thing that gets the most out of your staff? What quality enables you to help and build up your workforce?
There are probably several aspects. It is a business where you have to be all in. It’s a business where airplanes are flying nearly 24 hours a day and work doesn’t end when you head home. Secondly, you need to like the travel business and some of the buzz that goes with that. If you like the excitement and like that no two days are the same given there are so many moving parts to this industry, then that’s a good business to be in. We are a customer service business that just happens to fly aircraft and we take the flying of those aircraft very seriously. Safety is our number one concern, but you better also have a customer service leaning as a part of your make up because without satisfied customers we don’t have much going for us. Last but not least, there are a lot of young people in this business and, as well as taking the opportunity to learn from them, we feel a great responsibility to mentor them. It’s great to see individuals who 10 years ago knew nothing about the airline business become really, really good at it and who can stand up to the best of what’s out there.
10. Employee empowerment is crucial to any organization. People want to grow and move up the ladder. What do you do to empower your employees? Do you personally mentor? Do you have programs in place?
Empowerment of front line staff is really important because it’s a lot easier to deal with an issue in the moment than it is to try and deal with a month later when it’s become more of an issue. So, front line staff really do need to be empowered and we work pretty hard to make sure they have the training, confidence and tools they need to do that. We have a lot of movement within the company from individuals in a multitude of roles. Many of them move laterally and also up and try on a variety of roles, and the more things they get experience in, the more valuable they are to the company quite frankly. There is enough to do in an airline industry that you don’t have to worry about being territorial with your jobs. If you can get someone trained up to do your job, the sooner you can move onto something new with more responsibility yourself. That runs from new team members right up to the CEO.
11. Building a business is no easy task and we always face roadblocks. In 2013/2014 you ran a promotional campaign with regards to the expansion of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport and the conditional acquisition of the Bombardier C-Series jets prior to the 2015 elections. After the current federal government came into power, they decided not to look into the expansion of the airport and your plans were put off. What would your advice be to entrepreneurs who are experiencing similar obstacles in terms of techniques or mind-sets to overcome these obstacles?
We don’t really see them as being challenges in the traditional way, they’re speedbumps and we need to work around them in a different way. That order is still conditional, so it hasn’t actually gone away. There are certain speedbumps and things we need to achieve before we can make that order happen. Sometimes you just have to circle around a little bit and take a different approach. I don’t think the issue of the jets is a question of if so much as when.
12. Lately there has been a lot of media about AI and pilotless aircraft. What’s your opinion on this? Where do you see it going?
I know there’s a lot of chatter out there, but I don’t see too many driverless cars just yet. I think it will be a while yet before we see passenger aircraft being flown without pilots, so I’m not spending too much time or energy on that. All of our aircraft will continue to be flown by pilots for some time into the future.
13. What are your future plans for Porter Airlines?
We recently acquired 3 new Bombardier Q400 aircraft, so we’re really focused on optimizing our current route network by keeping the overall experience level high and reinforcing our “Flying Refined” philosophy. The aircraft give us a certain amount of maintenance flexibility. We are adding a couple of routes in September, we are always looking at enhancements to our route network and we’ve identified a number of short haul destinations that can be accessed from here eventually. We also have other focus cities outside of Toronto in the form of Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax. We expect to do more from those destinations over time.