2023-08-16 04:45:47
A page is turning at the Saint-Hubert airport, where the preparatory work for the future new terminal will soon begin with the excavation and leveling of the land. The $200 million project is due for delivery by the end of 2024, but it won’t welcome its first passengers until summer 2025.
Posted at 12:45 a.m. Updated at 6:00 a.m.
Saint-Hubert airport in brief
Year of opening: November 1, 1927 Principal manager: DASH-L (Développement Aéroport Saint-Hubert de Longueuil) President and general manager: Yanic Roy The Canadian Space Agency built its head office there in 1991, before settling officially two years later, making the airport a hub of innovation.
“From now on, it’s a race against time. You have to be able to beat the winter, in other words, you have to complete the preparation of the ground and the excavation before the frost”, explains to The Press the airport’s vice-president of corporate affairs, Simon-Pierre Diamond.
Tuesday, passing The Press, workers were already busy installing the security fence that will separate the vast construction area from the current airport, in order to ensure the smooth flow of ongoing airport operations. “Once that’s done, we’ll start digging the new terminal. In about two weeks, there are going to be trucks everywhere here, it’s going to be very active,” said Mr. Diamond.
Between now and the arrival of the winter season, the construction of the structure of the building should gradually begin, according to the vice-president.
The terminal built by Porter Airlines – which will be its main user with Pascan Aviation – will consist of nine boarding gates and will eventually be able to accommodate more than four million passengers. “That said, we know that we won’t have this number on day 1. In fact, for the first year, we expect more than one million passengers approximately”, explains Mr. Diamond.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Preparatory work has just begun for the construction of the new terminal at Saint-Hubert airport.
A desire for expansion
For the moment, the service of the terminal will be mainly Canadian and regional. Porter Airlines will provide service to major Canadian cities, while Pascan Aviation will offer flights to various Quebec municipalities. In total, around fifteen flights will be able to take off daily from the new terminal.
Under its lease with Transport Canada, Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) – the operator of Montréal-Trudeau and Mirabel – still benefits from an exclusivity clause for international flights. In other words, a plane that takes off from Saint-Hubert cannot so far transport passengers to the United States or sun destinations.
“For the moment, we especially want to give birth to our domestic service. Once this objective has been achieved, we will reassess for the future. But that’s not the plan. The terminal has no customs, it is not intended for international use,” says Mr. Diamond.
However, nothing prevents the terminal from growing over the years, he adds.
It will always remain transportation with small planes, but yes, we have the ambition to seek out other carriers eventually. We will eventually need to improve the offer for passengers.
Simon-Pierre Diamond, Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, Saint-Hubert Airport
In principle, the new terminal will have been completed by the end of 2024, but it will take a “reasonable time” before the first flights. These should take place as soon as June or July 2025, at the latest, says the airport. A more detailed schedule will be specified during an official announcement scheduled for this fall with several partners.
Including the 130-room Holiday Inn hotel which is also to be built near the new terminal, the total project will cost more than 200 million. Porter Airlines, the hotel promoter and the Saint-Hubert airport will entirely share the bill. No public money will therefore be invested in the project.
More fears
The announced expansion of the Saint-Hubert airport is not just making people happy. The organization Urgence climatique Montérégie, which is part of the Coalition Halte-Air Saint-Hubert, notably requested a moratorium in March “in order to be able to evaluate any project that may be developed in order to see its noise, health and climate impacts”.
In addition to the apprehended increase in air traffic, the group denounces that the project goes against current climate issues, especially since the project has never been the subject of public consultation.
“There has been no health impact study, despite the fact that there is GHG pollution which is estimated at around 500,000 tonnes per year if the airport is in full operation all year round. It amounts to doubling all automobile pollution in Longueuil, it’s of that order,” laments coalition member and UQAM professor Julien Keller, who deplores that Porter Airlines planes “are noisy”, unlike what the authorities want to imply.
From a strictly economic point of view, Mr. Keller also says he is “convinced that we are heading towards a Mirabel fiasco”. “It’s going to be the white elephant of the Longueuil agglomeration, we’re sure of it. We do not believe in their economic model. And there again, there has been no serious impact study, ”he says.
For Simon-Pierre Diamond, communication with citizens has since enabled “real progress” to be made on the sound environment and the issue of the environment in recent months. “One or two years ago, there weren’t really any discussions. There, the dialogue is open, ”he recalls.
“The project will be done with latest generation aircraft which are much quieter. Ultimately, the quality of life of local residents will improve. We are able to equip ourselves with noise management technologies that we could not necessarily buy before”, illustrates the manager.
With Julien Arsenault, The Press
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