Canada became involved in the
Imperial Airship Scheme during the 1926 Imperial Conference, when prime minister
William Lyon Mackenzie King pledged Canada's assistance to Great Britain. Money was set aside for the construction of an airship base, airport and
mooring mast in eastern Canada. British experts came over in May 1927 to choose a site, and visited a number of locations in
Ontario, Quebec and
Atlantic Canada. They settled on a piece of land on the
south shore of Montreal, at Saint-Hubert, and officially announced the decision in August 1927. Work on the airfield began almost immediately and Saint-Hubert’s first airmail delivery took place in November 1927. Also during the summer of 1927, the British
Air Ministry decided to send the
R100 to Canada. On August 1, 1930, the R100 airship arrived after what was possibly the first non-stop passenger-carrying powered
transatlantic flight across the
North Atlantic to land in Canada. It was Montreal's first and only airport until the opening of Dorval Airport (now
Montréal–Trudeau International Airport) in 1941. The airport was divided into two sides, a
military side along with the
Pratt & Whitney Canada facility (facing runway 06L/24R) and a civilian side (facing runway 06R/24L). Today the military base, the former
RCAF Station St Hubert, has ceased operations, but the
Canadian Armed Forces still use the base as a garrison comprising the tactical helicopter unit,
438 Squadron, 34
Service Battalion and 34 Canadian Brigade Group Headquarters. The ex-Pratt & Whitney hangar is owned and operated since 2012 as the largest
fixed-base operator on the airport by an AvJet branded dealer: CYHU H-18 Services Inc. Their hangar is the newest addition to the fixed-base operator network: HUB FBO. Following the new
National Airports Policy announced by
Transport Canada in 1994, ownership of the airport was transferred to a private corporation, ''Développement de l'aéroport Saint-Hubert de Longueuil'' (DASH-L), on September 1, 2004. The body of Quebec
minister of labour and
deputy premier,
Pierre Laporte, was found at the airport during the 1970
October Crisis.
Recent upgrades and expansion In 2018, the runway was upgraded to accommodate larger aircraft and attract low-cost carriers. It was announced on February 27, 2023, that
Porter Airlines will develop a new passenger terminal at the airport that is due to be completed in late 2025 and provide domestic flights throughout Canada. In 2024, it was unveiled that Saint-Hubert Airport would be rebranded as Montreal Metropolitan Airport (
Aéroport métropolitain de Montréal) with the abbreviation "MET". The airport's new passenger terminal was unveiled in March 2026 with an opening date set for June 15, 2026 and with
Porter Airlines as the launch carrier. The airport will be connected by a bus service operated by the
Réseau de transport de Longueuil to the
Longueuil–Université-de-Sherbrooke station on the
Montreal Metro. ==Airlines and destinations==