Montreal’s second airport is now open and half the metro area can reach it faster than YUL

Montreal travelers tired of passing through YUL now have a new option.

After years of construction, Montreal Metropolitan Airport’s new terminal opened this morning in Saint-Hubert, bringing commercial flights back to a site that last saw scheduled passenger service in 1940. The airport, known as MET, is about 15 km from downtown and was built to handle up to four million passengers a year.

Porter Airlines and Pascan Aviation are the two carriers operating out of MET from day one, covering a pretty wide range of Canadian destinations between them. Porter is on the longer domestic routes — Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto (Billy Bishop and Pearson), Hamilton, St. John’s, Halifax, Moncton, and Charlottetown. Pascan is handling Quebec and Maritime flying, with service to Quebec City, Gaspé, the Magdalen Islands, Saint John, Halifax, and Charlottetown. Around 30 daily flights are expected at launch.

The location is selling point for a big chunk of the region. Roughly half of Greater Montreal’s population lives closer to Saint-Hubert than to Trudeau, which is a pretty compelling fact if you’re coming from the South Shore, Montérégie, or the Eastern Townships.

The airport’s terminal has nine boarding gates and a 900-seat waiting lounge.

MET sits about 15 km from downtown Montreal and is accessible by car or via an express shuttle that connects to the Longueuil–Université-de-Sherbrooke metro station. The retail inside is entirely Quebec-based: a Bâton Rouge, a Café Dépôt, and a convenience and travel goods store.

The terminal was built to handle up to four million passengers a year. Whether it gets there depends on how many travellers decide to give it a shot. But as of today, the door is open