Over the past few years, Porter Airlines has been undergoing a major expansion. While the airline has historically operated De Havilland Dash 8-400 turboprops out of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ), the airline is also currently taking delivery of 75 Embraer E195-E2s, which are being used to expand across Canada, as well as to other points in the Americas.
One of the challenges with trying to grow is that it can be tough to secure gate space at major international airports, all while creating a pleasant passenger experience. Porter has done a great job with that at its Billy Bishop Airport hub, but as you’d expect, it’s more challenging at other airports.
In 2023, the airline made a creative announcement, that it would invest in building a new terminal at a different airport in Canada’s second most populous city. There’s now an exciting update, as this is now in the process of opening (thanks to Avishai for the reminder).
In this post:
Porter expanding to a second Montreal Airport
Over the past few years, Porter has been developing a modern passenger terminal at Montreal Metropolitan Airport. That’s the airport’s new name, as previously it was known as Montreal Saint-Hubert Airport. The airport is maintaining its code of YHU, though airport officials are marketing the airport as MET.
While the terminal was first supposed to open in late 2024, as you’d expect, delays with these kinds of projects are common. The expectation is that the new terminal will now welcome its first passengers starting in about a month, as of June 15, 2026.
The new terminal is capable of serving over four million passengers annually. It’s roughly 21,000 square meters (225,000 square feet), and features nine jet bridges, with lounge-style seating for all passengers, as well as food and beverage concessions and retail vendors. Porter explains that the new terminal is modeled after the revitalization of Billy Bishop Airport, which Porter has been part of for around 20 years.
Below you can see some pictures of the new terminal at Montreal Metropolitan Airport.
Porter already flies to Montreal Trudeau Airport (YUL), and plans to continue to maintain its presence there, while also building a Canada-wide network at Montreal Metropolitan Airport.
The new terminal is also being made available to other airlines, including Pascan Aviation, which is the only airline otherwise serving the airport. Pascan Aviation operates regional flights across Quebec from the airport. There are also plans for Pascan Aviation and Porter Airlines to codeshare, creating more connectivity throughout Quebec.
Porter has already announced plans to launch a dozen routes from the airport, including flying to both of its hubs in Toronto, and also flying both of its aircraft types from the airport.
Below you can see a chart with the routes that will be served, along with the starting dates and frequencies (the asterisks denote seasonal service).
New routes from MET* | Start date | Frequency |
Quebec City (YQB) | June 15 | 7x weekly |
St. John’s (YYT) ** | June 15 | 7x weekly |
Toronto City (YTZ) | June 15 | 27x weekly |
Toronto Pearson (YYZ) | June 15 | 20x weekly |
Vancouver (YVR) | June 15 | 14x weekly |
Edmonton (YEG) | June 16 | 7x weekly |
Calgary (YYC) | June 17 | 7x weekly |
Halifax (YHZ) | June 17 | 14x weekly |
Charlottetown (YYG) ** | June 18 | 7x weekly |
Winnipeg (YWG) ** | June 18 | 7x weekly |
Moncton (YQM) ** | June 19 | 7x weekly |
Hamilton (YHM) | June 22 | 14x weekly |
Will Porter succeed with a new airport in Montreal?
Porter is certainly thinking outside the box with its plans to expand in Montreal.
On the one hand, I imagine Porter’s costs for using the airport will be pretty good, since that’s usually the case at smaller airports, especially with incentives. Furthermore, it’s nice that Porter can offer a great passenger experience here, in terms of the terminal seating, as well as the ease of using the airport, given its small size. People will probably like that.
On the other hand, it can be really hard to make a new commercial airport “catch on.” People are creatures of habit. Just look at how Paine Field (PAE) has kind of struggled to grow, as I’d consider that to be a largely similar concept.
Porter has often compared Montreal Metropolitan Airport to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. The major difference is that Billy Bishop Airport is actually very convenient if traveling to & from Toronto, while Montreal Metropolitan Airport is roughly an equal distance from the city as the existing airport.
Admittedly you have a lot of people living around cities, and Porter also points out that the new airport has a convenient location for a significant portion of the local market. Will that be enough to make this concept succeed?
The other challenge is that when you’re trying to compete with a major airline like Air Canada, it’s important to have a huge network and lots of frequencies out of a given airport. By splitting operations between two airports, Porter is limiting its ability to scale its network in terms of connection opportunities, easy rebooking, etc.
Ultimately it’s hard to measure Porter’s success more broadly, given that the airline isn’t publicly traded. There are all kinds of rumors about the carrier’s (lack of) profitability, but public information is limited.
Bottom line
In the coming weeks, Porter Airlines will be commencing operations at Montreal Metropolitan Airport, formerly known as Montreal Saint-Hubert Airport. This is all thanks to a new passenger terminal that Porter invested in, which is capable of handling over four million passengers per year.
The new terminal looks great, and this should be a very pleasant passenger experience, especially with its smaller size. How easy will the airline be able to change passenger behavior, though?
What do you make of the new Montreal Metropolitan Airport passenger terminal, and Porter’s plans?
That airport has the potential to become great, but also not sure management is taking the right steps towards that. Just several weeks ago they were looking for customer service employees but unpaid. Called them volunteers instead.
I live in Montreal & I was in Atlanta during 9-11. Flights to Canada weren’t happening for several days. I was able to get home via Burlington Vt (BVT) & that was how I discovered the convenience of a smaller airport. Admittedly traveling to the US via BTV with JetBlue, competitive pricing & passing through customs & immigration by car at the Canada US border made BTV a really great alternative to YUL. MET may...
I live in Montreal & I was in Atlanta during 9-11. Flights to Canada weren’t happening for several days. I was able to get home via Burlington Vt (BVT) & that was how I discovered the convenience of a smaller airport. Admittedly traveling to the US via BTV with JetBlue, competitive pricing & passing through customs & immigration by car at the Canada US border made BTV a really great alternative to YUL. MET may do very well. There’s a reasonable amount of population on Montreal’s “South Shore” where the MET is & convenience is a big deal. BTW: YUL is having a major rebuild of its multi level parking area so that may also encourage use & discovery of the new airport.
I really like Porter and wish them the very best, but I don't see this working.
City airports need be very close to the city center and, even more importantly, easily accessible. This is the case with Toronto City (YTZ), where you actually can walk to/from the city center. It is also the case with London City (LCY), which is half a dozen light rail stops away from one part of the city center (Canary...
I really like Porter and wish them the very best, but I don't see this working.
City airports need be very close to the city center and, even more importantly, easily accessible. This is the case with Toronto City (YTZ), where you actually can walk to/from the city center. It is also the case with London City (LCY), which is half a dozen light rail stops away from one part of the city center (Canary Wharf, Tower Bridge, O2 Arena). But MET is on the other bank of the Saint Lawrence and you need to take the metro plus a connecting bus service, while Dorval (YUL) has a direct bus to the center.
You bring up London, and fail to mention it has no less than six area airports, LHR, LGW, LCY, STN, LTN, and SEN, each connected to the city center by trains, buses, and highways. Sure, Montreal is not London, but it doesn’t mean a metropolitan area and its suburbs cannot handle a secondary airport. MET is a decent idea, and I hope it works out.
As a resident of the Richelieu region, I'll find the revitalised St-HUb airport convenient for long-distance travel in Canada, having used it before for a flight from the Gaspé region. (I'll also coninue to use VIA Rail which has two stations in our region, allowing me easy access to Québec, Drummondville and Ottawa,among others). With the
distance to Dorval from chez-nous, St-Hub offers a real time saving by comparison, for trips farther afield. I...
As a resident of the Richelieu region, I'll find the revitalised St-HUb airport convenient for long-distance travel in Canada, having used it before for a flight from the Gaspé region. (I'll also coninue to use VIA Rail which has two stations in our region, allowing me easy access to Québec, Drummondville and Ottawa,among others). With the
distance to Dorval from chez-nous, St-Hub offers a real time saving by comparison, for trips farther afield. I imagine this accessiblity may asttract a susrpising number of travellers from th South Shore..
Amazing. All the best to Porter. Good to see them expanding.
Any market share taken away from AC is a good thing
"People are habits of creature."
I suspect you mean "creatures of habit". ;-)
Montreal's last attempt at having a second airport did not end well. (See Montreal-Mirabel)
In that case, their whole pitch was different. They built a super-airport, one of the biggest in the world, in the middle of nowhere, banking on planes needing to refuel (which was unnecessary once super jets were released). Here, it's a nice, small, 9-gate regional airport. Definitely less of a risk. It's also closer to the US border, which means than YUL, which may make it more advantageous for upstate NYers to get across Canada.
It's incredible to me that Canadian cities can support having multiple airports like this. Most US cities with longhaul and city airports are significantly larger than Toronto and Montreal.
The smallest metro with multiple airports would be MIA/FLL, which is almost 2x the population of Montreal.
I can think of several smaller us cities close in size to Montreal or smaller with two: Seattle/paine, slc/provo, phoenix/mesa, San Diego/carlsbad to name a few.
Toronto is the fourth most populous city in North America
There are other U.S. metropolitan areas smaller than Montreal with multiple airports that have commercial service, such as Seattle. Tampa, San Diego, Orlando, Charlotte, and Columbus.
Porter is awesome. It’s worth signing up for their emails just so you can see all the cute clip art with their raccoon mascot doing different fun activities.
oh yeah, i did sign up only to see the raccoon and his friends doing all kinds of touristy stuff
Literally got one earlier today: "Ready, set, save on flights to MET" and there he was... that cute racoon!
I'll certainly be using it starting next year. With Air Canada's modifications to the Aeroplan program, I no longer will be flying AC if Porter goes to where I want to go (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto). As well, I live on Montreal's south shore so no need to drive across Montreal to get to YUL. For those living downtown, it could actually take less time to & from the airport as well.
I'm sure there's...
I'll certainly be using it starting next year. With Air Canada's modifications to the Aeroplan program, I no longer will be flying AC if Porter goes to where I want to go (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto). As well, I live on Montreal's south shore so no need to drive across Montreal to get to YUL. For those living downtown, it could actually take less time to & from the airport as well.
I'm sure there's lots of others who will switch from AC to Porter for Canadian destinations and I hope they do well so they can expand their routes.
Best thing about Porter… no middle seats!
They remind me of Airlink in South Africa (and I mean that in a good way!)
Airlink is fantastic! Flown them many times. Have only flown Porter once, on a Dash 8 back in March from Halifax to Montreal. It was very pleasant but those planes are slow. If they add more jets it'll be good, but as much as I dislike YUL (one of the worst airports I regularly use) I won't be going to St Hubert.
In a year from now, YUL will have the advantage of the direct link by REM ( Metro) from downtown. 15 to 20 minutes train ride will be a game changer
If you live on the south shore it’s great. To get to the Island or downtown it’s a car or bus, and traffic can be horrendous going across the bridges. Had it been tied into the REM network it would be a lot more accessible. Bit of Trivia. Montreal had a STOL port right near downtown. It was a true STOL approach, Twin Otters were used on flights to Ottawa. Now that would have been an interesting flight.
The new rental car setup at YUL is horrendous. A long walk just to get on a bus to the facility. I would try MET in a heartbeat. I see a train station not far so transit to downtown might be doable. As you said, for South shore it's a no-brainer.
Ben, I think you are missing one of the biggest challenges limiting the airport's potential:
Due to an exclusivity agreement between YUL and the CBSA, there's no customs facility at YHU.
Elbows may be up and transborder travel may be down substantially, but no flights to the United States is a substantial detriment for business travellers as well as for many of your American readers who are reading about the airport here. (And, of...
Ben, I think you are missing one of the biggest challenges limiting the airport's potential:
Due to an exclusivity agreement between YUL and the CBSA, there's no customs facility at YHU.
Elbows may be up and transborder travel may be down substantially, but no flights to the United States is a substantial detriment for business travellers as well as for many of your American readers who are reading about the airport here. (And, of course, for the many snowbirds who still go to Fort Lauderdale every winter, trade war or not.)
I think YHU airport is setting up a shuttle bus between YHU and Longueuil Metro station for downtown Montreal access
Indeed, and the walk after getting off the shuttle from the rental area is very long! They really don't seem to be able to do anything properly at YUL.
"Had it been tied into the REM network it would be a lot more accessible."
There is a new bus service that will run to the REM, but I think only half-hourly.
"I see a train station not far so transit to downtown might be doable."
Even though the tracks run right along the airport property, there is sadly no easy connection to the commuter rail system (at least not yet).
@R T the new bus service is for Longueuil Metro station
As a Cajun looking to explore my Acadian heritage, with a Québécoise wife and a condo 45 minutes away from this airport, this is great!
But perhaps that doesn’t describe most of Porter’s potential customers.
If only the USA had a domestic airline as good as Porter.
With raving pax like TravelinPenis, there's no way we can have good things. Sad but true.