From Mirabel to Miserable - Is the Mirage Being Repeated Elsewhere?

4th October, 1975 - Canada recorded a place in aviation history as the country officially opened a vast $500 million airport ($2.2 billion in year 2014 value) to welcome expected millions of passengers that would pass through its gates in time for the 1976 Summer Olympics and subsequent years. One estimate put that Montreal, then the foremost city in Canada may be forced to handle 50 to 80 million air travellers in the next century in its increasingly cramped Dorval airport if nothing was done to improve aviation infrastructure in that city. Believing that demand for air travel would picked up, it was decided that a new replacement airport be built at a site 55km to the northwest of the city at a sparsely populated area settled by farmers. 98,000 hectares of farmlands were expropriated to Canadian government, more than the size of Montreal city itself. The airport's original masterplan features six passenger terminals and six runways. That huge amount of land where the airport sits also act as a considerable noise buffer zone. Residents of Montreal's then (and still is) international airport complained of excessive aircraft noise. With the anticipated entry into service the likes of high-tech, but super noisy supersonic jets such as the Concorde, the urge to build land consuming aviation facility far away from densely populated area become a matter of practice even until today.

Montreal-Mirabel International Airport officially opened in 4th October 1975 with much fanfare - and a hope that Montreal and wider Canada can compete with other emerging cities in North America. -Source-

In this brochure published by Transport Canada, Mirabel airport was envisioned as a premier aviation hub. -Source-

Montreal-Mirabel International Airport - as it is officially known,  initially opened with two runways and a single passenger terminal. The terminal itself was something of a state-of-the-art facility in the 1970s. All international flights were moved to the new airport. Domestic and regional (including USA destinations) largely remained at the old Dorval airport until a planned closure at a later date. However, the planned closure of Dorval never materialise as air travellers were beginning to find that the old airport is conveniently near to downtown Montreal. A planned highway and a high speed railway line connecting Montreal to Mirabel's passenger terminal too never materialise, further eroding the mega airport's attractiveness to air travellers as they find it as being too far and too time consuming to reach. As more Canadian cities were opened to international flights and longer range aircraft came to the market, there is no longer a justification to stop by at Montreal. Adding the socio-political issues in the city (and in the wider province of Quebec), the city began a long and slow decline in international prominence. The effect? Mirabel airport failed to sustain traffic. The passengers that passed through its gates barely surpassed 3 million. Over the years it has garnered reputation as a white elephant and a poster child of wasteful public spending.

The only passenger terminal ever built stood abandoned and frozen in time until a final decision was made to demolish it in year 2014 citing losses to Montreal to maintain the unproductive facility. -Source-

The last passenger flight occurred on 31st October 2004. Over the next 10 years, the only passenger terminal ever built stood abandoned and frozen in time as various plans were mooted to put it to useful purpose. Some quarters want it transformed into a convention centre, some wanted a theme park and even an aviation museum. For a brief moment, the terminal was alive as filming location. Among the well-known was the Hollywood production of 'The Terminal' starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones where the terminal is partly portrayed as JFK airport in New York City. After that, the terminal was in disused again. It was finally decided that the terminal be torn down as the cost of upkeep represented a loss to the city. Mirabel airport's two runways remain operational as a cargo airport and also as test beds for new aircraft. But, one can hardly forget that the primary purpose of the airport, which is to welcome 50 to 80 million passengers per year never materialise.

Dubai World Central or officially known as Al Maktoum International Airport has been developed in phases to ease increasing congestion at Dubai International Airport which is recently surpassed Heathrow as the world's busiest international airport (excluding domestic passengers). -Source-

While Mirabel closes a chapter as a passenger airport, other cities around the world are experiencing air travel boom. Among them are Dubai, Denver, and even Sydney. Vast, sparsely populated lands are opened for new mega airports, reminiscent of the practice shown during planning of Mirabel. Dubbed Dubai World Central, the newest airport in this major aviation hub in the Middle East may eventually hosts five runways and four terminal buildings - capable of handling 160 million passengers and 12 million tonnes of cargo per year. So far, only few airlines operate there and it is now mainly a cargo airport. The airport is built to entice Emirates to move its operation there as it has more space for the airline to continue its global expansion. However, Emirates has yet to decide on shifting to the new airport for at least until the next decade.

In Denver, despite having an airport 40km away from the city, Denver International Airport has been ranked as the world's 18th busiest airport in year 2014 where it handled more than 53 million passengers. Located on a roughly 140 sq. km of land, the airport has plenty of room for expansion. Unlike Mirabel, Denver International Airport is able to accumulate passengers because when the airport opened in 1995, the closer and more space constrained Stapleton Airport was closed down soon after. The site of the former airport is now a mixed-use neighbourhood development. The plan for a second international airport at Australia's largest city, Sydney has been going on and off since 1960s. The Australian government has identified a vast site some 50km to the city's west as being suitable for a second airport. In subsequent years, the land has been purchased and reserved by the government. However, at some point the proposal for the second airport didn’t gain momentum. An alternative plan was to link the city and its present airport to Canberra airport via high speed rail - but the plan never pulled through.

Without fast, efficient and reliable transit network, there is a risk of another Mirabel to any airports that are located far-away from the cities that these intended to serve -Source-

As passenger and aircraft traffic continue to expand at present Sydney Airport, the room for expansion is becoming more limited. Adding to the challenge is that the airport is subject to night time curfews, thereby the number of take-offs and landings cannot be spread more evenly throughout the 24 hour period. Critics of the second airport began comparing it with Mirabel. Initial phase of the development may not include high speed railway link to Sydney CBD, prompting some to argue that the strategy would be a mistake. There is also no clear indication whether present airport would be closed indefinitely. Proposed access improvement to the new airport might carry more traffic to existing highways thereby causing more congestion.

Mirabel airport has become a symbol of what to-do and what not to-do when dealing with public spending. It has become synonymous as an output of egoistic "built it and they will come" psyche without giving due thoughts on alternative scenarios that could change whatever is envisioned. In an era where every public spending, whether spent or still on the drawing garnered constant check and balance, plenty of factors play their part whether such spending is worth the investment or may see shadows of white elephant looming ahead. So, again is mirage being repeated elsewhere? Yes and no (or a bit of both).