Entire villages are displaced to build “the world’s largest airport” and left to rot until its demolition

Located in Mirabel, Quebec, about 24 miles northwest of Montreal, stands an airport that was meant to be so much more and ended up as nothing. With no passengers and beset by problems, it was quietly left to die. Today it is an abandoned structure – a project that might never have failed had it not been for everything built around it.

It displaced thousands from their homes. In 1969, the Canadian government cleared roughly 125 square miles of farmland, forcing out about 10,000 local residents to build Mirabel International Airport. The dream was to create a vast hub connecting Montreal and the wider region, with six terminals and six runways.

The airport opened in October 1975, just in time for the Montreal Olympics, and planners once projected it would handle 60 million passengers a year by 2010. Instead, airlines began pulling out, and the crucial transport links it needed were never created. A proposed high-speed rail line from downtown Montreal to Mirabel was never built, leaving the airport isolated and far from the city.

Mirabel never surpassed three million passengers a year. Its decline had already begun, especially as domestic flights shifted back to the old Dorval Airport – now Trudeau – another key factor behind the dwindling numbers.

Its final flight departed on October 31, 2004, an Air Transat service to Paris. With no passengers, the terminal lost its purpose and was abandoned. The main structure was demolished in 2016, and the site now functions as a cargo facility, an aerospace testing center and an aircraft assembly hub. Among the most direct collateral losses was the 2002 closure of the Château de l’Aéroport-Mirabel, a 344-room hotel built next to the terminal in the 1970s.

Get your game on! Whether you’re into NFL touchdowns, NBA buzzer-beaters, world-class soccer goals, or MLB home runs, our app has it all.

Dive into live coverage, expert insights, breaking news, exclusive videos, and more – plus, stay updated on the latest in current affairs and entertainment. Download now for all-access coverage, right at your fingertips – anytime, anywhere.