Hey guys, welcome back to the channel!
Today, we are starting another revised series of videos called Airport Future, in which
we look at different major airports in Canada as well as the rest of the world to see what
they’ve got in store for the future in terms of improvements and expansions, and also the
existing and new transit connections the airport has with its host city.
Kicking off this new series, we will be looking at the Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International
Airport, also known as YUL, the third busiest airport in Canada by passenger traffic, and
a major hub for Air Canada. Located in the town of Dorval west of the city of Montreal,
the airport served a very respectable 19 million passengers in the year of 2018, and is growing
quickly year by year as the primary airport serving Quebec, the Atlantic provinces, and
Eastern Ontario.
In this video, we’ll first give you guys a run down of the main terminal building of
the airport, the 3 runways and the network of taxiways serving them, as well as transit
and driving availability of the airport, and then we’ll move onto the new expansions
that the airport is getting, as well as any other major changes coming to the airport
and its nearby lands. Enjoy the video!
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To start off, let’s first break down the facilities currently available at Trudeau Airport.
The main and only terminal building has two-stories, and is separated into 4 different areas.
The middle body part of the terminal is the public area shared by each of the three arms,
dedicated for checking in, shops and cafes, and various other services.
The eastern arm of the terminal, as well as the satellite concourse to the northeast,
all together make up the domestic jetty of the airport, where you can find 26 gates in
total serving flights that are heading to or arriving from airports within Canada.
The northwestern arm of the terminal is the international jetty, where 18 gates serve
international flights to and from countries apart from the US.
And the last arm is the southwestern transborder jetty, with 18 gates that only serve flights
to or from airports within the United States.
Most of the terminal was expanded and revitalized within the last couple of decades, with the
newest expansion being the International terminal expansion that was completed in 2016. The
$620 million expansion added quite a sizeable area that contains 7 new boarding gates and
various restaurants, shops, and open spaces. Let’s now move onto the runways and taxiways
of the airport. The airport has two parallel north-south runways and one east-west runway
in between them, and we’ve got an extensive network of taxiways for planes to travel between
them and the terminals.
In between the runways, you can find offices, hangers, and plants for different aerospace
companies and airlines including Bombardier, Lockheed Martin, Air Transat, and Air Inuit,
and notably with the headquarters of Air Canada located here as well.
If you are planning to drive to the airport, it’s about a half an hour drive from downtown
Montreal, and the main roads and highways that will get you to the airport include the
east-west Autoroute 20 to the south, the north-south Autoroute 520 to the east, the east-west Trans-Canada
Highway to the north, and the east-west autoroute Chomedey Ouest that connects the Trans-Canada
Highway and Autoroute 520.
After getting to the airport, you can park at any of the numerous parkades and parking
lots on site, with the main parking area being the big short term parking parkade at the
very northern end of the main airport loop, in which you can also find car rental companies,
as well as the long-term parking lot to the south of the parkade.
If you’re like us and prefer using transit to get to the airport, there are a few options
as well. The 747 Airport/Downtown shuttle service is a 24/7 shuttle that will take passengers
from either Lionel-Groulx metro station or Berri-UQAM metro station to the airport, with
the former being a direct shuttle and the latter having 10 stops on the way into and
out of downtown Montreal.
The intermodal bus and rail station of Dorval is right at the southern end of the airport
on Autoroute 20. It is served by both Exo trains on the Vaudreuil-Hudson line, as well
as Via’s train routes on the corridor out of Montreal and Quebec City. In order to get
to the airport from here, passengers can take a shuttle bus known as “Air Connect”,
and it is free for all Via Rail passengers.
The closest metro stations to the airport are Namur, De la Savane, and Du College on
the orange Line, and you can get to the airport either via the 747 shuttle bus from Lionel-Groux
we mentioned earlier, or by taking a couple of buses from Du College station with similar
travel times.
Alright guys, so this is the current state of affairs for Montreal Trudeau Airport, we’ve
got our main terminal where you’ll be able to access everything, three runways, as well
as numerous options to get to the airport. Much of the airport has been renovated to
bring it up to date and to the standards of the current time, but there’s still lots
to be done to increase capacity for the growing passenger volume, modernize parking and driving
access, as well as connect the airport better to the public transit options in the area,
which is definitely a weaker point of the airport right now with only commuter/long
distance rail access or shuttle bus access right now.
First up, we’ll talk about the new expansion project that was unveiled last year in 2018
that will cover expansions until 2030. This expansion project was announced by Aeroports
de Montreal, the non-profit organization that runs the region’s airports, and it will
mean multiple expansions and renovations and additions to the airport for the terminal,
parking, and transit, with 2.5 billion dollars planned to be used for the 5-year first phase
of the expansion.
As part of this first phase, a new remote passenger jetty will be built on the grounds
of the current east-west runway, adding 10 to 15 new gates to the airport, and resolving
the shortage of terminal gates currently being experienced by the airport.
This remote jetty will then be connected to the main terminal as part of the second phase
of construction, creating a massive structure that will definitely improve the experience
of flying in and out of the airport, and give the airport a lot more room to grow into.
The other big part of this project is the revitalization of the parking facilities here
at the airport. This will see the main parkade of the airport demolished, and the whole area
inside the main loop converted into a multi-level parking structure and drop-off zone, complete
with green roof and glass roof. This will be a much needed improvement to the old parking
lot and parkade, as well as adding many more parking spaces for the growing passenger demand.
And located 35 metres below this parking lot is the final piece of the puzzle: along with
the parking lot, a new station of the REM will be built here, to finally connect the
airport to the city with a reliable and frequent rail link.
The REM is a future rapid transit system under construction in the Greater Montreal area
around Montreal, which will link several suburbs with Downtown Montreal via Central station.
Most of the system will be a conversion of the previous Deux-Montagnes commuter rail
line, and it will have 3 different branches, with one of them terminating at the airport
in the future.
When the system is completed, it will become the fourth longest automated transit system
in the world, and it will greatly improve transit connectivity to Montreal’s suburbs,
and serve as a transit connector alongside the Montreal Metro. This branch of the REM,
along with the Montreal Trudeau Airport station, are planned to be completed by 2022, and we’re
looking forward to riding it by then.
Besides this main expansion project, a master plan from 2013 also shows some more future
improvements that are in the works right now, including the development of a new air cargo
handling area and taxiways that will support it, a reconfiguration of the international
arrivals hall and of the domestic and international departures luggage area, as well as an extension
of the transborder jetty.
No new runway is planned despite the future retiring of the east-west runway, but that
will probably come in the future along with growing demands.
In the future, the REM will definitely be extended from the Airport to Dorval station
as well, to complete this section of transit connectivity, and giving passengers more options
to get to the airport.
Alright guys, this is what Montreal Trudeau International Airport will look like in the
future, with lots of great improvements coming to the area. We hope you enjoyed this video
and the expansions we’ve mentioned. Like, subscribe, and leave a comment down below
to tell us what you are most excited about for YUL. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram,
and consider supporting us on Patreon for Behind-the-Scenes and early access to our
videos and content, as well as more in-depth discussions. Thanks for watching guys, we’ll
see you in the next one!
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