The summer will be busy at Montreal-Trudeau airport, which anticipates receiving nearly 7 million passengers over the next three months, a record. To limit congestion, most terminal parking will be free for around forty minutes all season.
“For the summer period, we again expect strong growth compared to last year, the most significant among major Canadian airports, with approximately 2.2 million passengers per month, in June, July and August,” said indicated Tuesday a spokesperson for Aéroports de Montréal (ADM), Eric Forest.
In a statement, his group insisted that its passenger traffic is “still growing” and that many summer destinations will be added this summer, which is likely to attract even more travelers. In short, everyone “expects a busy summer at YUL,” says the organization.
All this comes after last April, the CEO of ADM, Yves Beauchamp, proposed an “ambitious” plan of 4 billion to resolve the accessibility problems that have so angered passengers here and elsewhere in Montreal-Trudeau last year, after the pandemic trough.
It must be said that time is running out. In 2023, the Montreal airport recorded record traffic of more than 21 million passengers, a jump of 32% compared to 2022 and 4% compared to 2019, a pre-pandemic year. The summer of 2023 was particularly busy, with an increase of 8% compared to the summer season of 2019. The administration expects to receive 25 million travellers by 2028.
Several mitigation measures will be in place this summer to limit road congestion as much as possible, although it will still be significantly present. From the outset, the first level of the P4 parking lot was redeveloped to become a drop-off point, “the West express,” offering an additional option for unloading a loved one. A shuttle departs from there to the terminal, a journey of less than 5 minutes.
Since the beginning of June, a free period of 40 minutes has also been offered in “most parking lots” at the airport. The measure will remain in place until September 2024, in order to “limit the phenomenon of circular movements on the site, in other words vehicles constantly turning while waiting for a traveler.
If the passenger you are waiting for has not yet arrived and you have to wait a while longer, CellParc waiting parking lots will be free for a maximum of two hours during the summer season. It is also possible to consult the real-time occupancy of the parking lots available on the ADM website. You can also reserve your space in advance to ensure you can park on arrival.
As for travelers returning home, the airport authority recommends completing their declaration using ArriveCAN “up to 72 hours before your arrival,” which significantly reduces customs processing time.
In November, Mr. Beauchamp confided that his intention is to set up corridors that will speed up the passage through customs of travelers who have duly completed their form on the ArriveCAN application. “We realize that people still associate this application a lot with COVID-19, even though it still helps speed up the process,” he said on this subject.
In short, travelers who fill out their form could go before others. “It’s roughly similar to the Nexus program which is already in place, but here, it will be aimed at everyone who wants to collaborate,” the CEO illustrated.
