Porter Aviation Holdings Inc. (PAHI) is entering a partnership with Montréal Saint-Hubert Airport (YHU) to develop a new terminal capable of serving over 4 million passengers annually. Construction will begin in mid-2023, with a scheduled completion by late 2024, providing a second airport for Porter to serve the Montréal market.
Porter says it will continue expanding its existing operations at Montréal’s Trudeau Airport (YUL), while also introducing a Canada-wide network at the convenient YHU airport, giving it two Montreal hubs to parallel its two facilities in Toronto.
More than 10 potential YHU routes across the country from Vancouver to to St. John’s, Nfld., have so far been identified by Porter. The airline also intends to connect YHU with both Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ) and Toronto Pearson (YYZ). Routes will be served with a combination of 78-seat De Havilland Dash 8-400 and 132-seat Embraer E195-E2 aircraft.
The YHU terminal development is modelled after the successful revitalization of Billy Bishop that Porter has been a part of for the last 17 years.
“Saint-Hubert has incredible potential as a complementary secondary airport for Montréal, with a convenient location for a significant portion of the local market and also easy access to downtown Montréal,” said Michael Deluce, president and CEO, PAHI. “We have proven this concept at Billy Bishop, now one of the world’s best urban airports, and look forward to working with our partners at Saint-Hubert to help create a similar success story.”
The new terminal will be open to other airlines, including Pascan Aviation. Pascan’s current YHU network focuses on regional Québec flights. Porter and Pascan intend to develop a codeshare partnership that facilitates seamless movement of passengers between their respective airlines and which will provide increased opportunities for travellers to move within the province of Québec and other regions of Canada.
“With an ambitious fleet plan, latest generation aircraft and an established airport management track record, Porter is the perfect match for the Montréal Saint-Hubert Airport,” commented Yanic Roy, managing director, Montréal-Saint-Hubert Airport. “This new partnership will provide world-class air services to the Greater Montréal population and the Québec regions. It will also ease air travel between the province and the rest of Canada and be a key item for the development of the Longueuil aerospace cluster.”
Terminal overview
• Modern design aesthetic, featuring natural light and high-quality materials
• 21,000 sq. m.
• 9 bridged aircraft gates
• Lounge-style seating for all passengers
• Food and beverage concessions, and retail vendors
• A Net-Zero facility with all building systems to fully operate on electric power
• State-of-the-art passenger and baggage processing, and security installations.
YHU says other carriers (soon to be announced) will also use the new terminal and that overall airport infrastructure and facilities will be upgraded. A new hotel with 130 rooms and meeting facilities will also be built near the terminal.
The airport is located 15 minutes from downtown Montreal and was recently ranked as the 15th busiest in Canada.