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Officials at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport are urging travellers heading to the airport to give themselves plenty of extra time this week.
The arrivals drop-off area will be closed to traffic, affecting anyone driving to the airport between 6 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., from Monday until Friday. During this time, all users will be redirected to the departures drop-off area.
“As usual, we always recommend arriving three hours before any departure, no matter the destination,” airport spokesperson Eric Forest told CBC in an email.
The continued demolition of the airport’s multi-level parking lot is the cause of this week’s traffic disruption. But it’s not the first such occurrence. Travellers during March Break were similarly inconvenienced.
Forest says this week isn’t a particularly busy travel time at the airport, but passengers should still be informed.
Traffic around Montreal’s airport has been a source of frustration in recent years, as the airport undergoes a $10-billion transformation over a 10-year period.
The airport’s goal is to be able to accommodate more vehicles, fix the congestion problems and make the airport smoother to navigate.
A new curbside pick-up and drop-off section is supposed to be completed by 2028, and will have tripled capacity.
The new parking lot is expected to be completed in 2031, according to Forest, and will have a total of 6,300 parking spots — 1,000 more than the former lot.
WATCH | How to navigate the congestion mess at Montreal’s Trudeau airport:
Navigating the congestion mess at Montreal’s Trudeau airport
As travellers head to the airport over the holidays, Aéroports de Montréal is urging people to plan ahead, largely due to the fact that the multi-level parking garage is being demolished and rebuilt.
The airport authority also plans to build a new building that will connect the terminal to the future light-rail station, expected to be operational by 2027.
In the meantime, airport officials are reminding travellers that the P4 and P10 Express drop-off areas are free and open seven days a week.
Anyone picking up or dropping off passengers is encouraged to consider those options, in order to avoid the added congestion at the main drop-off areas.