Montreal City Weblog

Kate 09:09 on 2026-03-30 Permalink Reply  

• CE 09:48 on 2026-03-30 Permalink

  Is there a public transit connection to the airport? If I have to take a taxi all the way out to St-Hubert, it might cancel out the savings.

• Nicholas 10:27 on 2026-03-30 Permalink

  Yes, the RTL 428 serves YHU about every half hour. I also expect it’ll start cheaper to attract business and then be about the same.

• Ephraim 11:44 on 2026-03-30 Permalink

  Just checked, the AIF for YHU is $35, while YUL is $40. YMX is still $15… too bad there aren’t any flights from there. YYZ is $37 or just $8 when connecting. YVR is $25. Still we are still getting hosed.

• Nicholas 12:24 on 2026-03-30 Permalink

  Are we getting hosed? Airports in Canada are non-profits that are required to operate without public subsidy. If they don’t charge AIFs they’ll just raise landing fees charged to airlines, who will pass the costs onto us in higher ticket prices. As someone who flies more than average, I think it’s more fair that passengers pay rather than taxpayers who fly less. Unless you think they should cut expenses, but they also have expansion plans due to increased passengers, plus all the traffic circulation, parking and the REM.

• GC 15:20 on 2026-03-30 Permalink

  A bit closer for me than YUL, so it looks like a cheaper taxi ride. Can’t wait for another option. While there is some appeal in a large airport for a long layover, I’ll always take a smaller one for departure/arrival. Everything just takes less time!

• Blork 15:28 on 2026-03-30 Permalink

  Regarding public transit, I think it’s a safe bet that if this thing flies (ha!) then more bus options from the Longueuil Metro station will be added. It should also be mentioned that the mythical yellow line expansion (which will likely never happen) could easily connect to the MET airport.

  Also: it would not be difficult to extend the REM from its current terminus just past the Dix/30 to run north-east along the 30 all the way to the Prominades St-Bruno and then a quick deke to the left and right to the airport. This would not only connect the REM to another shopping mall, it would provide quick communiting access to all those people who currently drive in from St-Bruno, Carignan, Chambly, St-Hubert, etc. Most importantly, it would connect YUL and MET via public transit. Imagine that.

  The other thing to remember is that the MET airport isn’t so much about giving Montrealers a slightly cheaper way to get to Toronto; it’s about giving the hundreds of thousands of people who live on the south shore and the Monteregie a way to get to Toronto (etc.) without having to line up to cross a bridge and without having them clog up the 20 and 40 on their way to YUL.

  I wish it were opening sooner. I’m going to Toronto at the end of May, and getting from chez moi to YUL will probably take longer than getting from YUL to YTZ, whereas it will take me less than 15 minutes to get to MET.

• Bert 15:35 on 2026-03-30 Permalink

  To whom would / they charge an AIF (Airport Improvement Fee?) out of YMX? Do FedEX, Puro, Cargolux, UPS pilots pay a fee? Do Nolinor run passenger charters out of Mirabel? Heck, maybe there is still a fee for the former Cartierville / St-Laurent Canadair field?

  It’s not like there is a YMX terminal to improve any more.

• Nicholas 15:42 on 2026-03-30 Permalink

  There is of course already a train line that goes right near the St Hubert airport, and there could be a short shuttle bus or they could spend a few million to run the train there on a branch or on a short detour. But of course there’s no love for our commuter rail lines, so they’ll all be counted as trains per day rather than trains per hour.

• Blork 18:05 on 2026-03-30 Permalink

  Nicholas, neither of those options are likely to happen. Bear in mind this is a small airport designed primarily to service people on the south shore (although they are marketing it as a Montreal airport), so the amount of users coming by rail, even if there were shuttles from the nearest commuter rail station (about 3.5 km from the terminal), would probably be counted in dozens per day not hundreds or thousands, so that just wouldn’t be economically feasible.

  BTW, Porter’s web site says there will be a shuttle service from the Longueuil Metro called the “METbus.” https://www.flyporter.com/en_ca/met_mtl

• Ephraim 18:42 on 2026-03-30 Permalink

  I’m not against paying an AIF… but to have one of the highest AIF in all of Canada, even higher than YYZ and YVR begs the question of how badly the airport is being run. They are spending $10 over 10 years to upgrade the airport, but are they publishing. They don’t publish a line-item full transparent budget, they do drop a few annual reports.

  But if you pull out some statistics, highest paid official is making over $570K which is 5X the median salary of the other ADM employees. And in 2024 they shared a bonus pool of $1.2M but we don’t really know his total compensation.

  Officially the AIF must be reinvested in the airport. In 2025 they spent $582.8M on gates and $113.7M on the rail link. And they are somehow going to be spending $1000M per year for 10 years? Officially none of the AIF can be used for salaries… but it leaves more to spend from the other side. YUL has one of the highest fees in Canada and it has consistently been one of the highest fees in Canada. Maybe that high fee should come with a LOT of transparency… especially in a province known for corruption?

• Nicholas 10:31 on 2026-03-31 Permalink

  Blork, you could build a station closer, and you could build it for cheap (no one here seems capable, but elsewhere people do). But it only makes sense if you have trains every 30 minutes. If so people from Montreal would use it. And then you’d also get people taking buses to the train. If that line got any love it’d also go to St Hyacinth, and maybe even Drummondville or Sherbrooke.

  Ephraim, I agree there should be more transparency on their budget, and items should be proactively published online, something I’ve seen municipalities do. The feds could change the rules anytime.

  But the airport does have a lot of construction in their stretegic plan, including a new international jetty. And it makes sense the YUL has one of the highest fees in Canada, given it is one of the largest airports in Canada. Not much growth going on at Fredericton.

• Ephraim 11:24 on 2026-03-31 Permalink

  @Nicholas, traffic is comparable to YYZ or YVR, which both have cheaper fees. And $1B a year for the next 10 years… that’s a LOT of money and a lot of room for corruption. That’s 20% to 30% more than the cost of the Metro extension. Almost double the cost of building the new Champlain bridge (in today’s dollars.)

  That’s $10 BILLION at $1B per year for the next 10 years.

• Blork 12:43 on 2026-03-31 Permalink

  Nicholas, the closest you could build it would be 1km from the terminal, and it would involve expropriating some land for passage between the station and the terminal, building a station, creating the awkwardness of having a station between the St-Hubert station and the St-Bruno station (which are already not very far apart). Plus it would add complications to the track which is shared-use with regular passenger trains and freight trains, etc.

  All that might be worthwhile if it were disgorging hundreds of passengers a day to MET, but it wouldn’t be. It’s a small airport that (AFAIK) is serviced by a single airline.