Forty Years After the $30 Billion Mirabel Mistake, Porter is Building Montreal’s 2nd Airport
by Bruce Parkinson
As aviation news site Simple Flying reports, Montreal has spent nearly half a century living with the consequences of one of aviation’s most infamous planning mistakes.
When Mirabel Airport opened in 1975, it was envisioned as the future of Canadian aviation, a massive international gateway capable of handling tens of millions of passengers and eventually replacing Montreal’s existing airport.
Instead, it became a classic white elephant. Travellers rejected its remote location, airlines struggled with split operations, and the airport never came close to fulfilling its ambitious promises. It was a $30 billion boondoggle.
Passenger service eventually disappeared altogether, leaving Mirabel as a symbol of how even the biggest infrastructure projects can fail when, as Simple Flying puts it, “they prioritize grand visions over passenger convenience.”
But today, led by fast-growing carrier Porter Airlines, Montreal is getting a second airport at a small fraction of the cost – and with a much more pragmatic vision – than the grandiose failure that was Mirabel.
On June 15, 2026, Montreal Metropolitan Airport (YHU), formerly known as Saint-Hubert Airport, officially opened a new $450 million commercial terminal designed to handle up to four million passengers annually.
Rather than competing with Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, YHU, or MET Airport as it is being called, is seen as a complementary facility, focused on making domestic travel faster, easier and more accessible.
Read the full and fascinating Simple Flying story here.
