Montréal–Mirabel International Airport , originally called Montréal International Airport, widely known as Mirabel and branded as YMX International Aerocity of Mirabel, is a cargo and former international passenger airport in Mirabel, Quebec, Canada, northwest of Montreal. It opened on October 4, 1975, and the last commercial passenger flight took off on October 31, 2004.
The airport is mainly used for cargo flights, but it is also home to medevac and general aviation flights, and hosts a manufacturing plant for Airbus, where final assembly of the Airbus A220 (formerly Bombardier CSeries) is conducted. Bombardier Aviation produced the Bombardier CRJ700 series of regional jets at the factory until early 2021. The former passenger terminal apron is now a racing course, and the terminal building was demolished in 2016.
Prior to the demolition of the passenger terminal, Montréal–Mirabel International Airport was classified as an airport of entry (AOE) by Nav Canada and was staffed by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). A smaller AOE for general aviation with no more than 15 people on board is still available from Hélibellule, Nolinor, and Mirajet. In addition it is one of ten Canadian airport classified as an airport of entry for cargo flights. It is part of the National Airports System and it was one of two airports in Canada with sufficient right-of-way that can be expanded to accommodate 50 million passengers per year, the other being Toronto Pearson International Airport. A lack of traffic meant that Mirabel was never expanded beyond its first phase. As a result of a controversial land expropriation, Mirabel would have been the largest airport in the world by surface area, with a planned area spanning a property totaling . In 1989, of that were deeded back to their original owners.History section of the Aéroports de Montréal site
The airport was intended to replace the existing Dorval Airport as the eastern air gateway to Canada. Accordingly, from 1975 to 1997, all international flights to and from Montreal (except for flights to and from the United States) were required to use Mirabel. Mirabel's distant location, its inadequate transport links to urban centres, and the continued operation of domestic flights from Dorval Airport made Mirabel very unpopular with travellers and airlines. It did not help that Montreal's economy declined relative to that of Toronto during the 1970s and 1980s, while newer long-range airliners no longer needed to refuel in Montreal prior to trans-Atlantic flights, so passenger levels never approached the levels that had been anticipated. The original plan to eventually close Dorval was discarded, and Mirabel thus turned out to be a white elephant.End of Era Near in Montreal For White-Elephant Airport, CLIFFORD KRAUSS, The New York Times, October 3, 2004
A decision was made to consolidate Montreal's passenger traffic at Dorval, with scheduled flights and charter flights being shifted in 1997 and 2004, so Mirabel was relegated to the role of a cargo airport. In 2004, Dorval Airport was renamed Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, after the Canadian prime minister whose government initiated the Mirabel project, the aim of which was to close and replace the Dorval airport. During the 2000s, Dorval was renovated and expanded, which enabled it to handle the passenger levels that the Trudeau government initially claimed would require two airports. Between 2008 and 2018, Mirabel's air traffic more than tripled due to the use of private passenger flights, helicopter flights and flight schools, leading to Aéroports de Montréal renaming the airport to YMX International Aerocity of Mirabel to emphasize it as a business facility.
Development Background In the 1960s, Montreal experienced a tremendous economic boom. Massive construction projects, including the Montreal Metro and those linked with the hosting of Expo 67, brought the city international status. More and more visitors were arriving to the city, especially by airplane but not always by choice. The federal government required European airlines to make Montreal their only Canadian destination. That resulted in 15–20% annual growth in passenger traffic at the city's Dorval Airport. As noise levels rose due to the increased flights, a nighttime restriction on flights was imposed as a temporary measure to placate nearby residents, but this would not be a long-term solution. At the time runway expansion at Dorval would have required the expensive acquisition of land.
Optimistic about the city's future and its continuing ability to attract more and more visitors, government officials decided to build a new airport that would be more than able to absorb increased passenger traffic well into the 21st century.
The Canadian Department of Transport studied five possible sites for Montreal's new airport: Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu ( to the southeast), Vaudreuil-Dorion ( to the west), Joliette ( to the north), St-Amable ( to the southeast), and Ste-Scholastique ( to the northwest).
The federal government proposed that the airport should be located at Vaudreuil-Dorion. Not only was it well served by existing road and rail routes, but it was close enough to both Ottawa and Montreal to serve as the gateway for both cities. However, Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa, who had a frosty relationship with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, reportedly did not want such an important project to be placed so close to the provincial border fearing the exodus of airport workers to Ontario. The Bourassa government preferred that the new airport be situated in Drummondville ( to the east) where it could be a gateway to Quebec City as well as Montreal.
Expropriation
In March 1969, the federal and provincial governments reached a compromise to locate at the St. Scholastique site, and proposals were drawn up to expropriate , an area larger than the entire city of Montreal. This area is served only by a long road link via Autoroute 15 and Autoroute 50. An additional link via Autoroute 13 was planned but never completed. Also planned was the connection of Autoroute 50 to the Ottawa/Gatineau area, a goal which would not be achieved until decades later, in 2012.
The federal government expropriation resulted in making Mirabel the world's largest airport by property area. The airport's planned operations zone, which encompassed what was eventually built plus expansion room, amounted to only , about 19% of the total area of the property. The federal government planned to use the excess land as a noise buffer and as an industrial development zone (which was never started). This attracted the ire of the people of St. Scholastique who protested vehemently against the expropriation of their land. Nevertheless, construction started in June 1970 under the auspices of BANAIM, a government organization formed to build the airport. The architects charged with the design were Papineau, Gérin-Lajoie, LeBlanc, Edwards.
Urban rail transit – the system was to be capable of speeds from for the Montréal–Mirabel run – initially to be called TRRAMM (Transport Rapide Régional Aéroportuaire Montréal–Mirabel), was intended to be completed at a later date. However, it never got beyond the drawing board. The TRRAMM system was also intended to eventually be expanded to other parts of the Montreal region. The major stumbling block for the TRRAMM project was funding. The federal, provincial, and municipal governments never managed to find enough cash to fund the highly ambitious and expensive rapid transit project. Thus, Mirabel was forced to cope with an inadequate road system and non-existent rail transit, supplemented only by express buses.
Operational history and decline
Montréal–Mirabel International Airport opened for business on October 4, 1975, in time for the 1976 Summer Olympics. In the rush to get the airport open in time for the Olympics, it was decided to transfer flights to Mirabel in two stages. International flights were transferred immediately, while domestic and US flights would continue to be served by Dorval airport until 1982. To ensure Mirabel's survival, all international flights for Montreal were banned from Dorval from 1975 to 1997.
The federal government originally predicted that Dorval would be completely saturated by 1985 as part of its justification for building Mirabel. They also projected that 20 million passengers would be passing through Montreal's airports annually, with 17 million of those through Mirabel. However, several factors dramatically reduced the amount of projected air traffic into Dorval.
Montreal began to decline in importance as an aviation hub after 1974 because of the increasing use of longer-range jets that did not need to refuel in Montreal before crossing the Atlantic from the major Western North American cities. The use of longer-range aircraft was made more attractive by national energy policies that provided Montreal refineries with feedstock at prices substantially below world prices, starting in 1975 and ending in the 1980s with the drop in world oil prices. Montreal was also overtaken by Toronto as Canada's main business centre around this time, due to the Quebec nationalism and French-only language laws that caused numerous companies and non-French residents to move to Toronto.
More importantly, the simultaneous operation of Mirabel solely for international flights and Dorval only for continental flights made Montreal less attractive to airlines and travelers alike, in contrast to other cities with multi-airport systems (New York City, Tokyo) where each airport operates independently in allowing international flights to connect to domestic flights. The planned but unbuilt highways and incomplete train routes connecting Mirabel to Montreal compounded the problem. Montrealers grew to resent Mirabel as they were forced to travel far out of town for international flights, as while Dorval was only 20 minutes away from the city core, it took 50 minutes to get to Mirabel even in ideal traffic conditions. International passengers who used Montreal in transit to another destination in Canada or to the United States had to take hour-long bus rides for connections from their international flights at Mirabel to their domestic flights at Dorval, unnecessarily complicating their journeys. Many international airlines, faced with the stark economic reality of operating two eastern Canadian points of entry, opted to bypass Montreal altogether and shifted their routes to Toronto Pearson with its straightforward domestic and US connections.Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine:
By 1991, Mirabel and Dorval were handling only a total of 8 million passengers and 112,000 tons of cargo annually, while Toronto Pearson was handling 18.5 million passengers and 312,000 tons of cargo. Mirabel alone never managed to exceed 3 million passengers per year in its existence as a passenger airport. It soon became apparent that the additional capacity from the opening of Mirabel became redundant. Although this redundancy would have been resolved if Dorval was decommissioned as originally intended, public pressure in support of Dorval prevented its planned closure. Another obstacle of the planned transfer from Dorval to Mirabel was Air Canada's desire to keep flights in Dorval, with its proximity to AVEOS workshops, and the connections in Pearson Airport.
The simultaneous operating of both Montreal airports without permitting connections resulted in Dorval being overtaken in traffic first by Toronto, then Vancouver and then relegated to fourth by Calgary for a period of time, as international airlines were slow to return to Dorval after it resumed handling international flights in 1997. Only Air Transat held out at Mirabel until the very end, operating the last commercial flight which departed to Paris on October 31, 2004.