The Globe and Mail

Mirabel airport is in the headlines again but this time the news is positive -- at least for the real estate sector. As of Nov. 1, all remaining passenger flights were transferred to Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, leaving the way open for the terminal building to be redeveloped into a different kind of commercial entity. At the same time, about 15 kilometres to the south at a location to be called Lac Mirabel, a U.S. investor and property developer has announced plans to create a Quebec version of the West Edmonton Mall. Mirabel International Airport, 55 kilometres north of Montreal, was dogged by controversy from the moment it opened on Oct. 4, 1975, and never lived up to its potential. In 1997, Aéroports de Montréal (ADM), a non-profit corporation that manages the city's two airports, started the process of transferring international passenger traffic from Mirabel to Trudeau (then Dorval). As of this month, the airport caters only to general aviation and the 25 cargo carriers that still use the facility.