Major projects will take place to update the aging or insufficient infrastructure of the Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau airport for at least the next four years. The President and CEO of Aéroports de Montréal (ADM), Yves Beauchamp, presented the main points Thursday during a speech to the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal. Here is a summary of what we know, in four questions.
What will the situation be like at the airport this summer?
In order not to revive the traffic jams that paralyzed the landing stage last summer, ADM will temporarily set up two additional landing stages. Motorists wishing to drop off passengers will then have the choice between going to the main drop-off point and going to these so-called “express” drop-off points, where shuttles will be waiting for travelers to take them to the terminal in five minutes. During rush hours, dynamic traffic signs will inform motorists of recommended options based on their accessibility. ADM must also deploy an information campaign about the changes that will be implemented this summer.
Parking will be free for 40 minutes during the summer period. “We realized, after our analyses, that around 25% of the cars circulating on the main landing stage were people going around in circles until a passenger arrived,” said M. Beauchamp in the written version of his speech.
The CEO of ADM said he looked forward to the summer crowds with confidence. Improvements have been made in the past year, he noted, including increasing the capacity of the baggage room on domestic flights by 30%, installing a new imaging device and a new search room, replacing 180 check-in terminals in departure areas as well as working “with carriers to resolve problems in handling teams”.
John Gradek, an aviation lecturer at McGill University, believes that due to the lack of boarding gates, a significant number of passengers may have to board the tarmac via small buses this summer .
Will the airport be able to adequately manage the increase in passenger numbers in the coming years?
ADM estimates that it must put everything in place to be able to accommodate 4 million more people by 2028. Therefore, we plan to demolish the current parking lot to build two new four-lane drop-off points on two levels, then rebuild the current drop-off point. The landing stage space will thus be tripled. A “satellite pier” must also be built in order to add around ten boarding gates.
But what about next? The International Civil Aviation Organization calculates that the number of travelers taking planes around the world will double between 2024 and 2042, and that it will be 2.5 times higher in 2050 than in 2050. is actually.
“We will be able to accommodate 25 million passengers in 2028, if we deliver on time, but according to projections, we will have to accommodate 30 million from 2030. This will require yet another expansion,” notes Mehran Ebrahimi, director of the International Observatory of aeronautics and civil aviation from ESG UQAM.
This will require major and sustained investments for all airports on the planet, including those in Montreal. It could be complicated for Montreal-Trudeau, which occupies land whose lease ends in 2072. This also prevents its leaders from doing very long-term planning as other international airports do elsewhere in the world.
Jacques Roy, professor and director of Carrefour Logistics at HEC Montréal, believes that there will remain “a lot of things to do to adjust capacity to demand, particularly at the terminal level, the expansions to be made for baggage and also on the slopes side”. He would like the airport to have a detailed and transparent long-term plan.
What will the costs be, and who will pay for the infrastructure projects at the airport?
The bill for the work over the next four years, which includes maintaining assets, is estimated at $4 billion. Not being able to obtain private investment given its legal status, the airport is dependent, for its income, on fees related to travelers and the passage of planes as well as the issuance of bonds. However, the pandemic was difficult for its finances, since its income melted like snow in the sun. Mr. Beauchemin believes, however, that the resumption of activities at full speed allows him to borrow with complete confidence for such infrastructure projects.
Jacques Roy is, however, concerned about the financing of these projects. “In fact, you and I are paying for this through the airport improvement fees, which are $40 per passenger, included in the plane ticket,” the professor emphasized, adding that they are constantly increasing. increasing in recent years.
What is the reaction of Air Canada and the experts?
Air Canada, which represents more than half of Montreal-Trudeau’s turnover, is happy with the investment plan announced Thursday.
“We are pleased that ADM has plans to increase its capacity both airside and landside. This is essential to support our long-term business prospects,” he said. Duty the airline’s general vice president of revenue and network planning, Mark Galardo.
Experts believe that ADM’s investment plan is necessary and even urgent, but that it could have been more ambitious.
In addition, the plan focuses on the expansion of the Montreal-Trudeau airport and does not include any mention of possible sharing of demand with the Saint-Hubert airport, newly renamed MET-Montreal Metropolitan Airport. The latter is completing the construction of a terminal which will be occupied mainly by Porter Airlines and whose total capacity will be 4 million passengers per year.
However, the two airports have no partnership plan to improve the experience of travelers in the greater Montreal area. Under the aegis of its former president Philippe Rainville, ADM had nevertheless opened the door to a form of partnership which would have made it possible to welcome more airlines and flights, both domestic and international, to Montreal, while continuing to entrust the air freight at Mirabel airport. This model exists elsewhere, notably in Paris, London and even Toronto.
Mr. Roy is also of the opinion that it will potentially be necessary to move activities that are currently under the aegis of Montréal-Trudeau elsewhere. On the airside, Dorval airport has the same capacity as London’s Heathrow airport, which is 85 million passengers. It’s especially on the city side that things get complicated, since the Montreal airport is landlocked on all sides.
On this subject, Mehran Ebrahimi especially deplores the lack of support from governments. “In a country where aviation is so important, it is disappointing that we do not have a national strategy for civil aviation and aeronautics, an essential infrastructure for the health of tourism and the economy,” said -he. We leave the airports to their own devices. Their legs were sawed off during the pandemic and now they are asked to run. »