Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) has begun demolishing the terminal building at Mirabel airport.
Completed in 1975, the controversial project never lived up to its expectations of being the major Eastern gateway into Canada. Economic troubles, politics and poor planning are to blame for the demise of what was the largest airport in the world in terms of surface at the time of its opening. The original project envisioned expanding the airport to six runaways by 2025 along with a commuter train link directly to downtown Montreal. Autoroute 13 was supposed to connect directly to the airport and a connection to Ottawa via Autoroute 50 was planned but only completed in 2012.
International flights were moved from Dorval to Mirabel in time for the 1976 Olympics and the plan was to eventually move all flights to Mirabel and close Dorval airport. The amount of projected passenger traffic never panned out and in 1997 ADM moved international passenger flights back to Dorval leaving only cargo and charter flights operating out of Mirabel. The last passenger flight left Mirabel on October 31, 2004 operated by Air Transat to Paris.
Last September, a demolition contract was given to a Quebec company for approximately $15million to level the passenger terminal and parking garages. ADM had spent nearly $30 million in the last ten year just to maintain the empty facility and was facing an additional $15 million in urgent repairs. Several reports suggested if there was ever a need for a new passenger terminal it would be cheaper simply to build a new one. Demolition will take about a year to complete.
Cargo flights still operate out of Mirabel and Bombardier manufactures CRJ and C-Series Jets on site. The old passenger apron was turned into Circuit ICAR which opened in 2009.
Photo credit: Forum member bedjer
