Archive | On September 15, 1997, the end of international flights at Mirabel airport
On September 15, 1997, international flights from Mirabel airport were transferred to Dorval airport.
Twenty-five years ago, it was controversially announced the transfer of international flights from Mirabel airport to Dorval airport, since renamed Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau airport. Back to the archives on the decline of Mirabel airport, inaugurated in 1975 and demolished in 2014.
September 14, 1997 on Téléjournal, journalist Daniel Carrière presents a report on the last day of international flights at Mirabel airport. Resentment runs high among airport employees and area residents.
Report by Daniel Carrière about the last day of international flights at Mirabel airport. The newscast is hosted by Michèle Viroly.
As host Michèle Viroly mentions, the choice of Aéroports de Montréal was not without problems.
“It's something that's silly, that doesn't make sense. »
— Jules Théoret, Front Mirabel
Jules Théoret, president of the Front Mirabel, who has campaigned for the past seven months to save the airport, feels helpless , betrayed and shocked.
In 1969, to build what was to become the finest and largest airport in the country, the government expropriated farmers on a territory representing two-thirds of the island of Montreal.
On October 4, 1975, in his inauguration speech, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau promises a large influx of visitors.
“At first glance, it is difficult to imagine this superb terminal in operation, it is hard to imagine the enormous but orderly swarming that it will soon house when travelers flock there at the rate of 4, 6 and then 10 million per year, but what we see will be, in 50 years, multiplied by six. »
— Pierre Elliott Trudeau, October 4, 1975
Mirabel airport will never really take off. In its first year of operation, Mirabel, which was supposed to accommodate four million passengers, barely attracted half of them.
Report by Martine Defoy on the decline of Mirabel airport and the series of events that led to the transfer of international flights to Dorval airport.
On September 14, 1997, as part of a special program devoted to the transfer of international flights from Mirabel to Dorval, Martine Defoy presents a report on the decline of Mirabel airport and explains the reasons leading to this transfer.
Since the late 1960s, the city of Toronto has grown at an astounding rate. It quickly became the metropolis and the economic capital of the country.
From the beginning of the 1970s, several foreign carriers put pressure on the Ministry of Transport to obtain landing permits in Toronto with no obligation to stop in Montreal. Mirabel will never become the gateway to Canada for transatlantic travel.
Toronto will experience three times the growth of Montreal airports. Another disadvantage, Mirabel is far from downtown Montreal and, according to many travellers, connections with Dorval are inefficient.
As Martine Defoy explains in this other report, over the years, foreign carriers have increasingly deserted Mirabel.
Report by Martine Defoy reporting on Dorval and Mirabel's competition with Toronto airport.
In the early 1980s, the federal Department of Transport announced that it wanted to make Mirabel the air cargo hub in Canada. But 10 years later, in 1991, 112,000 tonnes of goods were unloaded at Mirabel and Dorval airports combined, while 312,000 were unloaded in Toronto.
It becomes more and more untenable, for Aéroports de Montréal, to maintain two airports in the Montreal area.
For 10 years, Mirabel airport will only be used for transport merchandise. Aéroports de Montréal gave the green light to the demolition of the terminal in September 2014.
Start of widget . Skip widget? End of widget . Back to top of widget?
