I don't remember the lineups that long pre pandemic. Considering traffic is 10% less than in 2019, it's not very good.

And yes YUL is tiny airport which why Mirabel was built in the first place. I am still an advocate to build a small passenger terminal there (for ULCC maybe). YUL is just way too limited.

If YUL need to kick out the ULCC, maybe YHU is better option than YMX?

I do. Quite often the lineup for customs was above the stairs, just as in those pictures.

What is much worse now, or at least was this past summer, was the wait for baggage. The baggage claim area was a shit show, when I last passed through in July.

In Montréal don't forget the lines for a taxi. Those were consistently long.

Last time I was in Montreal I did Uber. The wait area needs more cubside space.

Lastly on the topic of Montreal is the lack of an independent lounge.

There's 2 already.

National bank lounge and Desjardins, but both are on the international side. There's also the AF/KL lounge, that's operated by Plaza Premium Group. Also in the international jetty. You won't have access to them if you're flying domestic or transborder.

YUL doesn't have room for another lounge. There's already 6. AC wants to build a signature suite, same as YYZ and YVR, but there is no room.

Yes. The wait area is small, but also, the access road leading to the terminal is obsolete. Not enough lanes, and demand far outweighs capacity. There was supposed to be major rework of the airport access road, tied-in with the new terminal. Work was supposed to start in 2020. All of it got pushed back because of COVID. I don't believe there's a timeline yet, as to when the work will start.

Only major airport in Canada without a domestic lounge when flying WestJet or using the AMEX lounge program.

Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Quebec City all have one.

There’s been long lineups like that, that lead upstairs from the customs hall into the terminal since at least 2017 during the peak summer season. We desperately need a new terminal preferably something like Zurich has to handle just international.

That's a very narrow passenger list you're mentioning. Westjet's service to YUL is a joke.

And like I said, there is no room to add a lounge, especially in the tiny domestic jetty. If you want a lounge on a domestic run from YUL, you need to fly AC and use the MLL or nothing else. It's unfortunate, but that's what it is.

edit: A couple of years ago, when there was no sterile transit, domestic passengers could use the 2 independent lounges in the international jetty, as the access to that jetty wasn't blocked. That's obviously not the case now.

Indeed.

It made the news as well at that time, as the overcrowding at the lineup for customs was getting to ridiculous levels. I wanted to find links from 2017-2019 for my post above, but didn't have time to check.

Some renovations going on where Avenue des Canadiens restaurant use to be. Someone told me it’s going to be a new lounge. To be verified.

They just built that extension a few years ago. Surprising they would remove a restaurant to build a lounge, but that’s the only way it’s going to happen I guess.

If the restaurant closed up shop due to COVID, and another company was ready to jump in and acquire the space, then it makes sense I guess.

And that fact that AC is moving capacity from YYZ to YUL, and TS is moving also moving capacity from the west to YUL, it'll only get worse....

^ yeah.

And speaking of TS, looks like they’re beefing up their TATL flights next summer, at the expense of domestic runs.

YUL-YYZ/YQB/YYC/YVR are all being reduced
YYZ-YVR is cut, whereas YYZ-YYC remains cancelled as well.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/221121-tsns23

So yeah, by the looks of it, next summer will be as busy, if not more, than S19, at least on the international scene.

From the current AC schedule, S23 will have more international departure out of YUL compared to S19... at the expense of YYZ, of course. So S23 at YUL will be busy at least in the international/transborder front.

Note that there are some over count for the S23 number, as some flights are currently zeroed out but not removed, pending suspension or transfer to Rouge. I manually remove some from the number (if schedule duplicated between mainline/express/rouge), but there will be the ones I miss such as those YYC suspensions.

^ nice work.

Always appreciate seeing those numbers.

YHU is limited just like YUL. YMX is a better option.

Both YMX and YHU face challenges in accepting scheduled commercial airlines, and therefore passengers, for different reasons.

Aside from the obvious, which is that neither airport has a terminal building that can accomodate a ULCC:

YMX's operator, ADM, has no intentions of building one.

YHU's operator, DASH-L, actually wanted to build a passenger terminal for ULCC ops back in 2018. It announced a partnership with Canada Jetlines to do just that, but then Jetlines did what it does best, stall, plus the pandemic happened. Also, YHU doesn't have designated airport status, meaning no CATSA. That will need to be addressed before any commerical service starts.

Here is the list of airports that have designated status for the CATSA Act.

https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/...html#h-1344680

So YMX has no plans for ULCC accomodation, but has the status to do so if it wishes, and YHU wants to, but doesn't have the status.

So neither airport is in any position, in the short to medium term, to receive a ULCC.

https://www.thestar.com/business/201...20early%202020.

You don't need much room for a small ULCC terminal with 2-3 parking positions for 737/A320 sized aircraft in front. You don't even need jet bridges. (Ryanair does just fine without them at most of the airports it serves in Europe.) YHU definately has room and runway to handle that. YHU's problem is noise. The NIMBY's around YHU complain about C172s coming and going. Imagine 737s or A320s coming and going on a regular basis. YMX doesn't have that problem.

It's a serious lack of vision by ADM. YUL capacity is maybe at 25M max. After you reach that mark, you will stop your growth because there is simply not enough space at Dorval.

I agree with you that NIMBY's will never let YHU develop more than what it currently is. Hence the option of building a small terminal at YMX being only one and the best one. If not for ADM's stupidity that is.

Did they not just finish removing a perfectly good terminal building at YMX?

I wouldn’t call it perfectly good, building was abandoned for years and had a big asbestos problem.

A flair 737-800 aircraft ran off the runway upon landing in Kitchener from Vancouver.

134 passengers all safe.

In CP24 fashion, they have a breaking news header on their website about it. Not really the publicity flair needs.

In a more economic view tho, 134 passengers on YVR-YKF during shoulder season while running 5x weekly is pretty impressive.