Montreal's Trudeau airport is getting a $4B facelift and it's going to include a lot of construction

Travellers, get ready for construction. Montreal's airport is about to go through a major expansion.

On Thursday, Yves Beauchamp, the president and CEO of the corporation in charge of Trudeau International Airport, announced a "period of intense construction."

Work is set to begin this year on a $4-billion redesign of the airport, including a connection to the REM rail network, new pickup and drop-off areas, new parking lots and a new terminal. The work is necessary, Beauchamp said, to get the airport ready to handle more people down the line.

"We have more travellers, more destinations, more carriers than before the pandemic," Beauchamp said. "We need to add capacity to our infrastructure."

The airport plans to build a new multi-level parking area near Côte-de-Liesse Road by 2026 and demolish the old, 5,000-spot car park.

The demolition of the old car park will free up space to expand the drop-off area. The airport plans to demolish the existing drop-off area and design a completely new one, with two new four-lane drop-off areas, almost tripling the capacity of the airport's infrastructure.

To relieve congestion during the construction, as of May, parking at all of the airport's lots will be free for the first 40 minutes.

The airport is also opening two nearby drop-off areas served by shuttle buses — another attempt to have fewer people driving directly to the airport.

Last summer, travellers faced hours-long traffic jams at the airport.

Beauchamp said the new layout will be a long-term solution to the traffic problem.

He acknowledged that the construction will cause headaches for people heading to the airport in the coming months and years. But, he said, it will be necessary to expand the airport to be able to receive more travellers.

"We're in a race," Beauchamp said. "We have four years to be able to welcome 4 million more people than today."

Beauchamp said the airport's finances took a hit during the pandemic, but it has enough money to complete the $4-billion project.

The expansion of the drop-off area, new parking areas and new terminal are just the first in what Beauchamp referred to as the airport's long-term plan. More projects are planned to be completed by 2035, including the construction of another multi-storey car park and more boarding gates.