MIRABEL AIRPORT MONTREAL closed for passenger operations with the end of the summer season over the weekend. Opened to a fanfare in 1975 as a state of the art second airport for Montreal it had a capacity for 10m passengers a year. It succumbed for a variety of reasons including the increased range of modern jets which could over fly to destinations further west; the failure of supersonic flight with a requirement for an airport without noise restrictions; and the expansion of Toronto over Montreal as Canada's most important city. The road and rail communications were never built and today the on-site 365-room deluxe hotel is sitting empty. No plans have been made for the artwork specially commissioned for the terminal. General opinion in Canada is that it was an excellent airport; much better than Dorval (now officially called Pierre Elliot Trudeau). Has it a current use? Yes. As a backdrop for airport films and disaster movies. Another ghost of the 1976 Olympics is laid to rest!
http://www.admtl.com