Saint-Hubert airport’s growth ambitions will materialize with the arrival of Porter Airlines, which intends to build a terminal as part of a major project, learned The Press.
This building should be located at the corner of boulevard Clairevue and route de l’Aéroport. There are also plans to build a hotel with around 100 rooms a stone’s throw away. All the details will be presented at a press conference next Monday. The director general of the Saint-Hubert airport, Yanic Roy, the Minister of Transport Geneviève Guilbault as well as the mayor of Longueuil Catherine Fournier will take part.
“We are talking about something major,” said a source familiar with the matter but who is not authorized to speak publicly. Porter is a company that has the means to match its ambitions.
The companies already established at Saint-Hubert airport were treated to a detailed presentation by the leaders of the place on Thursday afternoon. Work should begin in the spring. At the time of this writing, representatives of the Saint-Hubert airport as well as Porter had not responded to questions from The Press.
According to our information, the terminal will be approximately 20,000 square meters (about 215,000 square feet) in size and will include up to nine boarding gates. The Toronto airline will operate its Embraer E195-E2s there — a direct competitor to the Airbus A220.
This plane is central to the strategy of Porter, best known for its propeller planes that land at Billy Bishop Airport in downtown Toronto. Since the beginning of February, the Toronto company has been offering a connection between Montréal-Trudeau and Pearson (Toronto) with its new aircraft.
Porter’s arrival is a game-changer for St. Hubert Airport, which has long been trying to attract a national carrier. From the South Shore, Porter will probably have to content itself with offering national flights, of the month, for the moment. The lease of Aéroport de Montréal — the manager of the Montréal-Trudeau and Mirabel airports — with Transport Canada gives it an exclusivity clause for international flights.
At Saint-Hubert airport, commercial flights will be prohibited at night from April 2024.