Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)
History, Facts and Overview

(Montreal, Canada)

The Montreal Trudeau Airport of today first came into existence in the early 1940s, when it replaced the nearby St. Hubert Airport, due to growing demands. Located at the Dorval Race Track, in the neighboring city of Dorval, the airport was immediately christened 'Montreal Dorval Airport' and was immediately extremely busy, becoming the country's busiest airport in the 1950s, when it was serving more than one million passengers each year.

In 1960 and now known as the 'Aéroport Dorval de Montréal', a new terminal building was commissioned at a cost of more than $30 million and become one of the biggest of its kind in existence.


Flight numbers decreased sharply during the mid-1970s and '80s, mainly due to the arrival of the nearby Mirabel Airport. However, in 1997, the number of international airlines once again began to increase and in 2004, Montreal Dorval Airport was officially renamed after one of Canada's past prime ministers, officially becoming the Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL).

No conference facilities are available at the airport, but the VIP lounge is equipped with facsimile machines and computer terminals. Public kiosks located in the terminal building provide Internet access, while the 'Duty Free Express' shop is amongst the biggest in the whole of North America. Various restaurants are also available, in the Public, Domestic, International and Transborder areas.