Montreal, CA 🇨🇦 Closed Airport
CA-1112
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- ft
CA-QC
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Loading...GPS Code: Not available
Local Code: Not available
Location: 45.47739° N, -73.54388° E
Continent: NA
Type: Closed Airport
Keywords: YMY CYMY XYMY
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April 30, 1976
The STOLport was built for a specific, government-funded demonstration project. The project, while a technical success, was not commercially viable without continued government subsidies. Passenger loads were lower than anticipated, and political support waned. When the two-year demonstration period concluded, the funding was not renewed, and the service was terminated, leading to the airport's closure.
The site of the former STOLport has been completely redeveloped and is unrecognizable as an airport. It is now the location of the Grand Quay (Grand Quai du Port de Montréal) and the Alexandra Pier Cruise Terminal. The area features modern port facilities, public parks, observation towers, and event spaces, serving as a major hub for tourism and recreation on Montreal's waterfront.
Victoria STOLport was a purpose-built airport and a critical part of a pioneering Canadian transportation experiment (1974-1976) to test the feasibility of a high-frequency, downtown-to-downtown air service. It served as the Montreal terminus for the world's first scheduled airline service using STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) aircraft. The route connected Montreal with a similar STOLport at Rockcliffe Airport in Ottawa. The service was operated by Airtransit, a subsidiary of Air Canada, using a fleet of specially modified de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft. The project proved the technical concept of city-center air travel but highlighted the economic challenges.
None. The land has been permanently repurposed for high-value port, commercial, and public use. The extensive redevelopment of the site makes any prospect of reopening it as an airport infeasible.
This was the site of a experimental airport set up as a federally funded research project in the 1970s to research the economic feasibility of short take-off and landing air service in downtown airports. Air Transit was an an airline operating shuttle flights from downtown Montreal to downtown Ottawa (at Rockliffe, CYRO) using specially modified de Havilland Twin Otters (series 300) that had improved spoilers and sophisticated avionics. The approach and take-off path were quite steep, as they had to clear the Victoria Bridge to the east and the power lines to the west. The crews were provided by Air Canada.
I flew once from here to Ottawa. The arriving terminal in Ottawa was the building which is now the entrance hall of the museum. I guess the economics didn't work out, as the STOLport concept didn't catch on.
It's too bad that this airport wasn't kept as a downtown GA field, as it conveniently located and isolated from residential areas by freeways, factories, and the St-Lawrence river. It's now the site of movie studios and a technology park.