Porter Aviation Holdings Inc. says it is partnering with the Montreal Saint-Hubert airport to develop a new terminal as the company aims to broaden its footprint in Quebec.
The owner of regional carrier Porter Airlines says it aims to apply the same strategy in Montreal as it has in Toronto, where it has carved out a market from its hub at the Billy Bishop airport.
Porter says construction of the 225,000-square-foot terminal on Montreal’s South Shore will kick off in mid-2023, with completion scheduled for late 2024.
The nine-gate terminal would serve up to four million passengers a year and provide a second airport for the carrier in Canada’s second-biggest city, though Saint-Hubert and the much larger Trudeau airport are roughly equidistant from downtown Montreal.
In Toronto, Billy Bishop airport is minutes from the downtown core, significantly closer than the international Pearson airport.
The announcement comes as Porter continues to expand its fleet, aiming to more than double it from 36 to 79 by 2025 amid intense domestic competition.
“This new partnership will provide world-class air services to the Greater Montreal population and the Quebec regions. It will also ease air travel between the province and the rest of Canada, and be a key item for the development of the Longueuil aerospace cluster,” Yanic Roy, managing director of the Montreal Saint-Hubert airport, said in a release Monday.