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Article overview Chronology of the events leading to the sad future of Mirabel International Airport in Montréal. The title is a parody of the original Mirabel Airport slogan in the early eighties: "The Airport where the Future is Present". Originally published in April 1998. Re-edited in September 2005. |
 he future civilizations will surely remember the 20th Century as the century when mankind made things big... or rather when mankind failed. Just like the Titanic and the Hindenburg (the world's largest vessel and blimp at the time) Mirabel International Airport (YMX), a modern, vast, beautiful airport, "the airport of the year 2000", would be added to the list. Mirabel is great, is average and becomes mediocre after international flights are transferred to Dorval (now named Trudeau).
 A second airport for MontréalDorval International Airport (YUL), Montréal's first big airport, was opened in 1941. Small at the beginning, it expanded rapidly. In the sixties, Dorval is full of jetplanes and propplanes flying from all over the world. Montréal is a very important stopover for refueling, just Gander or Shannon. In 1967, Montréal, Canada's major city, hosts the World Exposition. Studies show that Dorval will be unable to fit the needs of 1985. A second airport is imminent, before Dorval becomes an overcrowded facility. Building a second airport back then seemed reasonably priced, compared to further expanding Dorval! Remember the historical context: it's the sixties, in the middle of the Quiet Revolution, the time of very rapid changes in the province, ranging from education to social life and religious life and many other aspects. Montréal wanted to impress the world and, for many, like any major city, it deserved a second airport, like Paris and New York. What the studies didn't predict were the creation of wide-body jetplanes capable of flying farther distances, meaning that the stopover in Montréal would no longer be needed in theory. They didn't predict that the oil prices would skyrocket in the 1970s, and that aviation worldwide would further economically suffer in the 1980s. Montréal would no longer be "the gateway to America." Today, many airlines overfly Montréal when they used to actually stop over. Mirabel is born
In terms of design, Mirabel International Airport is unique. Instead of having jetways for passengers to board or deplane the aircraft, the airport would be using the now-infamous passenger transborder vehicles (PTV), just like Washington Dulles in its early years. According to Radio-Canada/CBC, each of these vehicles had cost 400,000 CAD at the time. The airline counters are arranged in a way that a passenger or a visitor only needed to walk a few hundred meters to get from the check-in counter (located perpendicular to the main hallway) to the depature lounge, PTVs, and finally the plane. With its high ceiling, roomy mezzanine overlooking the arrivals lounge, and brand-new 354-room Canadian Pacific hotel, Mirabel's first terminal was a beautiful facility. On October 4, 1975, a mere five years after construction work begain, the first two runways and terminal are completed and the airport was officially inaugurated. A lot of distinguished guests, including Prime Ministers Robert Bourassa (Quebec) and Pierre-Elliott Trudeau (Canada) were there for the celebration. The executive management of the first 13 airlines servicing Mirabel, and many other VIPs arrived on an Air Canada Boeing 747 flying from Dorval. It was the first plane to officially land in Mirabel. On the first actual use of the PTVs, the hydraulic system of one of them fails and the honourable passengers had to leave and board another PTV, while the other guests watching the scene from the terminal's mezzanine laughed out loud! What was projected... and what actually happened
"[...] there is no point in hiding the truth: the construction of Mirabel was a mistake. But it is a mistake that is destined to correct itself, as soon as the growth in air traffic returns to its pre-1973 rhythm. [...] The delay in the full use of Mirabel will have given the agencies concerned time to find alternative solutions so that the airport at Dorval will not become a ghost area. There is an impressive list of solutions
The transferAmong the 19 airlines that posted their country flags in front of the terminal in 1975, very few were still flying there a few years later. Gradually, every major airline obtained Federal permission to stop refueling in Montréal and fly non-stop to Toronto, a blossoming metropolis with a growing international community, and home of a major international airport with all domestic, US and overseas flights in one same facility. The exodus seemed to be unstoppable. In 1992, Transport Canada hands over the management of Dorval and Mirabel to Aéroports de Montréal (ADM). The management company immediately had to make a painful decision and thus, started planning the return of the international flights into Dorval, further expanding this airport, leaving Mirabel with the charter and cargo flights.
Leaving cargo-only flights in Mirabel seems an easy solution at first, but considering that most of the cargo flies on passenger flights, Mirabel's survival in the event that passenger planes all land in Dorval seems sketchy. The return of overseas flights in Dorval is a project that stirred a flow of protest, especially from the same farmers that were expropriated 20 years before. Several demonstrations and even a legal battle (overruled by the courts) would not change the course of things. The aftermathOn the morning of September 15, 1997, an El Al Boeing 767 from Tel Aviv landed at Dorval Airport, becoming the first scheduled overseas flight to arrive there in 22 years. Ground staff greeted the passengers of the Israeli airliner with flowers. Since then, there were many ups and downs: major players like Austrian and Lufthansa started flying again, while airlines like Sabena and Tarom came and left due to financial difficulties or bankruptcy. The airport is once again accomodating a large volume of connecting passengers to Europe and beyond. Connections to the United States are not as simple, however: like at most major Canadian airports, passengers arriving in YUL must claim their luggage and clear U.S. customs before departing to the U.S. The Aeroquay was being used as the international concourse. It is an antiquated small satellite, built at a time when the largest aircraft carried no more than about 200 seats, which found itself handling aircraft carrying almost double the passengers. ADM claimed it was a temporary solution and indeed, after many delays, those same flights are now using gleaming new transborder and international concourses, inaugurated in 2004 and 2005. This expansion of Dorval Airport was fueled by an Airport Improvement Fee of 10.00 CAD (later 15.00 CAD), which, until 2003, was inconveniently charged separately from the airline ticket fare. An ADM spokesperson admitted it caused a lot of frustration among tourists having to fork a few extra Canadian Dollars on their day of departure.
The solution, in this author's opinion, would have been to build that expressway that promised but never delivered, the tram that could easily link Downtown to Mirabel, and for which a rail station underneath the terminal was built. A bus leaving every 15 minutes (later 30) from downtown Montréal is not enough. The real mistake is that Mirabel, a facility with a very high expansion potential, is a sixth of what it was supposed to be, or at least it will stay like it, until Trudeau simply becomes to small for Montréal, and the city goes back to square one. Links If you have other URLs to add to this list, or to report a dead link, please contact us.
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 Footnote 1 - Mr. Latouche's quote: from Forces magazine, number 54-55 (double), 1981, p. 105 Transport Canada commercial: ibid, p. 99 All Mirabel pictures and most article references: from Radio-Canada "Dossier: de Mirabel à Dorval" (no longer online) . © 1998-2008, airodyssey.net. All rights reserved. Disclaimer, trademarks, privacy policy. | ||||||||||
