2016 a record year for YUL

Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) has announced that Montréal-Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau International Airport set a new record for passengers welcomed in 2016, with 16.6 million visitors passing through the airport. This marked an increase of 1.1 million, 6.9 per cent, over 2015.

2016 saw the seventh consecutive increase in annual passenger traffic at the airport, allowing the airport to strengthen its third-place ranking on the list of Canada’s busiest airports.

“Air travel in Canada has been in a golden age for a number of years now,” said Philippe Rainville, the new president and CEO of ADM. “The main reason for this has been Air Canada’s expansionary strategy, supported by low fuel prices and a favourable exchange rate. Aéroports de Montréal is very proud to have planned and built, in a timely manner, the new facilities it needed to take full advantage of that growth. The entire Montréal community is now reaping the benefits.

“If the present trend continues, our annual traffic will be in the neighbourhood of 20 million passengers by 2020, propelling Montréal-Trudeau to the next level. The prospects for 2017 are already very promising: Air Canada’s new daily route linking Montréal and Shanghai, which will be inaugurated on Feb. 16, is expected to generate some 125,000 yearly passengers, including large numbers of tourists from China; meanwhile, Air Transat’s roster of destinations is expanding to include Tel Aviv.”

Domestic arrivals and departures increased by nearly 9.7 per cent in 2016, with the Montréal-Toronto route proving particularly busy. Traffic in the international sector was up by 5.9 per cent, remaining competitive thanks to the arrival of new carriers including Air China, which completed its first full year of operations at Montréal-Trudeau in 2016.

Flights to and from Europe also increased during the summer, reflecting the increased capacity deployed by Air Canada, Air Transat and international airlines. Transborder (Canada – U.S.) traffic also grew, by 4.3 per cent, with destinations in the American West and the three New York City airports strongly driving up demand.

Connecting traffic also increased, by approximately half a percentage point, to 18.8 per cent. This was attributed to carriers’ efforts to develop Montréal-Trudeau as a hub. In absolute terms, taking into account the strong growth in overall traffic, the number of connecting passengers jumped by about 300,000, from 2.8 million in 2015 to 3.1 million in 2016.