After years of complaints from citizens of the South Shore inconvenienced by aircraft noise, Transport Canada announces the end of night flights at Saint-Hubert airport from 1er april.
“The noise from night flights has been a major concern for Longueuil residents for years. It’s been more than a year since Chrono Aviation knew that the airport asked to ban Boeing 737-200 flights at night. I made the decision to act to protect the peace and quiet of the people of Longueuil,” said the Minister of Transport, Pablo Rodriguez, in a written statement.
Chrono Aviation is the carrier that operates night flights to bring employees of a mining company to the Far North aboard a Boeing 737-200, an old, noisy aircraft. There are generally two night takeoffs per week to Baffin Land, as well as three landings.
“The request was sent 19 months ago to the Ministry of Transport, so there was a long review,” explains Simon-Pierre Diamond, vice-president of corporate affairs at the airport, which is now called MET – Montreal Metropolitan Airport.
The directive banning flights between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. will be included in the next update of the Canada Air Pilot, the bible for Canadian pilots, which will be released on May 16, says Mr. Diamond. In the meantime, Transport Canada will issue a directive to carriers operating at the airport to prevent them from flying at night starting on 1er april.
Welcoming this decision, the mayor of Longueuil, Catherine Fournier, welcomed in a press release “a victory for the City and the airport, but above all for all the citizens of the South Shore”. “I am very happy with this decision, which is based on the recommendations issued by the Office de participation publique de Longueuil in its November 2022 report and which also constituted one of the key commitments of my team and me. »
A year ago, Chrono Aviation filed a lawsuit against the managers of Saint-Hubert airport, who had already announced their intention to request a ban on night flights from April 2024.
“It is Chrono as a whole which is in danger if such a limitation on flight hours is imposed, because the planes will be grounded, which will result in several pilots, flight attendants, employees […] will have to be fired, because they will no longer have or almost no work,” the suit states.
The directors of Chrono Aviation did not respond to our interview requests to express their reaction to the Minister of Transport’s announcement.
With Julien Arsenault, The Press