Similar to Toronto, Montreal will soon have a second airport for travellers to get in and out of the city. Located half an hour from downtown and Old Montreal, the new Montreal Metropolitan Airport (MET) is scheduled to open on June 15th with Porter Airlines as the launch carrier, alongside regional routes from Pascan Aviation.
“It’s going to completely disrupt the Montreal marketplace. More than half of Montrealers live closer to this airport, the MET, than they do the alternative airport,” Michael Deluce, Porter Airlines’ chief executive officer, told TravelPress Today during a preview event held at the airport yesterday. “It’s going to be a game changer for travel to and from Montreal just like Billy Bishop changed travel to and from Toronto 17 years ago.”
Ahead of tours of the airport, Deluce announced Porter’s initial flight schedule including service to Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Halifax and St. John’s, representing a significant capacity increase in its Montreal service.
Michael Curmi, managing director, sales & distribution and Eddy Eldebs, senior vice president and chief commercial officer for Porter Airlines
“On June 15, Porter will introduce the first of 12 destinations to be served at MET,” he shared during the press conference. “This is an unprecedented amount of service that Porter is bringing to one airport and one community at one time. We will nearly double our total capacity in Montreal this summer, with six of the 12 MET routes being new markets for Porter in the city.”
Notably, MET will be served by both the 78-seat De Havilland Dash 8-400 (prop planes) and the 132-seat Embraer E195-E2 (jets). From Toronto alone, there are 27 weekly flights via Billy Bishop and 20 weekly flights via Toronto Pearson.
“Most cities worldwide that are of significance have multi-airport environments. Montreal now will have that and passengers generally in those multi-airport environments choose the airport that is closer for them and they don’t even look at the alternative so it’s going to be highly disruptive for the Montreal marketplace,” Deluce added. “On top of that, travellers coming into Montreal now have the opportunity to fly into the MET. It’s very conveniently located relative to YUL to downtown Montreal, as well as the South Shore area, but on top of that they get to do it with style and convenience and a very easy footprint. It’s going to be great for outbound and inbound traffic.”
Michael Deluce, chief executive officer for Porter Airlines, at MET
MET’s official airport designation code is YHU, and the terminal is developed and operated by YHU Infrastructure Partners. Although the terminal is new, MET was formerly known as Saint-Hubert Airport and already had the runway and other infrastructure in place. The new terminal features 28 counters and 10 self check-in kiosks, and operations like ground handling, fuelling, and de-icing are all done in house. Baton Rouge and a cafe will be opening for the launch.
Fresh off the debut of U.S. Preclearance at Billy Bishop earlier this month, Deluce reports a growth in bookings for its U.S routes because of it.
“We’ve had very strong demand. I’ve seen growth in our eastern U.S. routes because of pre-clearance. It enhances what was already a very convenient airport to fly out of,” he shared.
Interestingly, while many Canadians are still avoiding U.S travel, Deluce told TravelPress Today that demand is on the rise across the airline.
“While U.S. traffic overall remains down for the market as a whole, we’re seeing substantial growth for Porter in our U.S. bookings year-over-year growth so that is interesting,” he noted.
Following the success of five new routes to the Caribbean, Mexico and Costa Rica this past winter, Deluce said travellers can expect even more service in store for next winter.
“It exceeded our expectations and was a great first winter. You’ll soon see us announce our next winter schedule,” he revealed. “You’re going to see a sizeable in our overall Caribbean, Mexico and sun presence. There will be new destinations, new frequencies and new city pairs announced.”
For more on Porter Airlines and our interview with Deluce, stay tuned to Canadian Travel Press.
