Temporary suspension of flights over Cartierville

The suspension of nighttime flights in this air corridor will however be temporary, for a period of approximately a year, in order to allow Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) to come up with an alternative solution that respects flight altitudes above new sectors and noise levels.

“What we introduced in 2006 improved the situation for the greater Montreal area,” said ADM Vice-President Normand Boivin in a telephone interview. “It is our ultimate objective, and the reason why we do not give up on the process, to come up with something better.”

Tests will be carried out during the day to evaluate the performance and to analyze the reasons why, for example, an airplane does not reach the required altitude.

In September 2006, ADM tried a new departure procedure and did not succeed in meeting the criteria of altitude and noise level. According to Boivin, this takeoff procedure that followed a left turn over Autoroute 13 is not an end in itself. “I am hopeful that we will find permanent solutions to reduce the sound climate around the airport.”

Noushig Eloyan, councilor of Bordeaux-Cartierville and representing Ahuntsic-Cartierville on the Soundscape Advisory Committee, intends to remain vigilant. “We perhaps won a war, but not the battle, because it is a question of common cause,” she said. “Things are not permanently resolved. It is solved for people of Saraguay, who were right to complain, I am very happy for them.”

With this suspension of flights, ADM is starting over. The sectors of Dorval and Pointe-Claire will once again have planes overnight.

Luc Marion, president of the Citizens Coalition for a Quality of Life, does not consider this suspension as a victory. “What we want is the elimination of night flights over all of Montreal and not only above Saraguay. These flights are not more pleasant for people of Saint-Laurent, Mount-Royal or Lachine,” he told the Courrier Bordeaux-Cartierville. The citizens represented by Marion wish that Mirabel could be put into service again.

A petition is currently available in all municipal buildings in Dorval for signatures that call for an end to night flights at Montreal-Trudeau Airport. (Translated by Michael Beigleman)