Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (IATA: YUL, ICAO: CYUL) (French: Aéroport international Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau de Montréal) or Montréal-Trudeau, formerly known as Montréal-Dorval International Airport) is a Canadian airport located on the Island of Montreal, 20 km (12 mi) from Montreal’s downtown core. The airport terminals are located entirely in Dorval, while the Air Canada headquarters complex and one runway is located in Saint-Laurent, Montreal. It is an international airport serving Greater Montreal, along with the regions of northern Vermont and New York.
The airport is one of two managed and operated by Aéroports de Montréal (ADM), a not-for-profit corporation without share capital; the other airport is Montréal-Mirabel northwest of Montreal, which was initially intended to replace the one in Dorval but now deals almost solely with cargo. Montréal-Trudeau is owned by Transport Canada, which has a 60-year lease with Aéroports de Montréal, as per Canada’s National Airport Policy of 1994.
Trudeau is the busiest airport in the province of Quebec, the third busiest airport in Canada by passenger traffic and fourth busiest by aircraft movements, with 13,668,829 passengers and 230,922 movements in 2011. It is one of eight Canadian airports with United States border preclearance and is one of the main gateways into Canada with 8,436,165 or 61.7% of its passengers being on non-domestic flights, the highest proportion amongst Canada’s airports during 2011.
It is one of four Air Canada hubs, and, in that capacity, serves mainly Quebec, the Atlantic Provinces and Eastern Ontario. The air route between YUL and Toronto Pearson International Airport is currently the 14th busiest air route in the world, in terms of flights per week, while the air route between YUL and Paris-Charles de Gaulle is the 8th busiest in terms of passengers carried (1.1 million) between Europe and a non-European destination.
Airlines servicing Trudeau offer flights to Africa, Western Asia, the Caribbean, Central America, South America, Europe, Mexico, the United States, and other destinations within Canada. The airport is headquarters and large Hub for Air Canada, the country’s largest airline, charter airlines, Air Inuit, Air Transat and Sunwing Airlines.
It also serves as a base of operations for CanJet. It also plays a role in general aviation as home to the headquarters of Innotech-Execair, Starlink, ACASS and Maintenance Repair & Overhaul (MRO) facilities of Air Canada, Air Transat, MJet and ExcelTech.Transport Canada operates a Civil Aviation Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul facility on site, with a fleet of Government owned and operated civil aircraft. Bombardier Aerospace has an assembly facility on site to build regional jets and Challenger business jets.
Early days
The birth of Dorval Airport was in the 1940s. At the time, it was becoming clear that the Saint-Hubert Airport (Montreal’s first official airport, in operation since 1927) could no longer meet the city’s growing aviation needs. The Minister of Transport purchased the land at the Dorval Race Track, thus ensuring the best possible location for the new airport. Montréal-Dorval International Airport went into operation on September 1, 1941, as RCAF Station Lachine with three paved runways. By 1946, the airport was already hosting more than a quarter of a million passengers a year, growing to more than a million by the mid-1950s. It was primarily chosen as an airport because of good weather and few foggy days. During World War II thousands of Allied aircraft passed through Dorval on the way to England. At one time Dorval was the major transatlantic hub for commercial aviation and the busiest airport in Canada with airlines such as British Overseas Airways Corporation (B.O.A.C) landing at Dorval en route to New York City.
On November 29, 1975, Montréal-Mirabel International Airport went into service. With an operations zone of 70 km2 (27 sq mi) and a buffer zone of 290 km2 (110 sq mi), it became the largest airport in the world. Many connecting flights to Canadian centres were transferred to Montréal-Mirabel and 23 international airlines moved their overseas activities there. As a consequence, the mission of Montréal-Dorval was redefined to encompass domestic flights and flights to the United States. Mirabel’s traffic decreased due to the advent in the 1980s of longer-range jets that did not need to refuel in Montreal before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Montreal’s economic decline in the late 1970s and 1980s had a significant effect on the airport’s traffic, as international flights shifted away from Dorval to Toronto Pearson, which serves the larger urban centre of Toronto.
Trudeau government had developed Mirabel Airport to handle an expected growth in international traffic, and, eventually, to replace Dorval. That extra traffic never materialized, and due to its closer proximity to downtown Montreal, all scheduled air services have now returned to Dorval/Trudeau, while Mirabel ceased passenger operations in 2004. In May 2007, it was reported that the International Centre of Advanced Racing had signed a 25-year lease with Aéroports de Montréal to use part of the airport as a race track. At the same time fixed base operator, Hélibellule, opened a facility at the site to cater for the private jets that were expected. The company also provides a passenger service from Mirabel to destinations in Canada and the United States. They operate two different types of helicopters; the Bell 222 and the Aérospatiale Gazelle.
With all international scheduled flights going back to Montréal-Dorval in 1997, as well as charter flights in 2004, Montréal-Dorval International Airport was finally able to become a true hub, where passengers would not have to travel to different airports depending on the type of flight. The consolidation of flights to Montréal-Dorval resulted in an increase of passenger traffic, not only because of transfer of flights, but because of new connecting opportunities. In 2000, 9.4 million passengers used the airport at a time when the maximum capacity was 7 million. In 2011, the airport handled 13,660,862 passengers, a new record.
A “domestic” flight is a flight within Canada. A “transborder” flight is between Montreal and a destination in the United States. An “international” flight is between Montreal and a destination that is not within the United States or Canada.
Renaming
The airport was renamed by the federal government in honour of former Canadian Prime Minister, the late Right Honourable Pierre Elliott Trudeau, on January 1, 2004, the renaming having been announced in September the previous year by then Minister of Transport David Collenette. This move provoked some opposition, especially Quebec sovereignists opposed to some of the policies of the former prime minister, as well as opposition from many aviation historians and enthusiasts who recalled Trudeau’s role as an opponent of the airport, planning to close it in favour of Mirabel Airport. Many Montrealers still refer to Trudeau airport as “Dorval,” or “Dorval Airport
Ronald Steyn Associates 