Sherbrooke airport hopes to soon bring Townshippers to Montreal in under 30 minutes

People in the Eastern Townships may be in for a new travel option come next year.

At the Sherbrooke city council meeting on Tuesday, the Aéroport de Sherbrooke announced its plan for commercial flights to Montreal as early as 2023.

The airport, which is located 30 minutes away from Sherbrooke in Cookshire-Eaton, houses two flight schools, provides private trips including medical evacuations and some for police and military personnel. It does not offer any commercial flights.

Cristian Bellehumeur, the airport's interim general manager, says this project has been in the works for 10 years.

Bellehumeur says there is a need and envisions the short, 25-minute plane rides catering to people who, once they get to Montreal, need to catch connecting flights.

"We have a lot of travellers in the Eastern Townships and they were asking for flights," said Bellehumeur. "The destination of our travellers will be all over the world."

Although there was some debate on where the Sherbrooke flights should be directed — the airport used to offer flights to Toronto — Bellehumeur says flying to Montreal is cost-efficient while still allowing travellers to go "everywhere" with at least 130 destinations across North America and the rest of the world.

Without access to a commercial airport, Bellehumeur notes travellers in the region are forced to brave Montreal-area traffic.

"If you leave from Sherbrooke and want to take a flight at Montreal, you will have to start five or six hours before your flight. It's a lot of time and a lot of stress," said Bellehumeur.

"I really think that for most people it will be a really smoother and less stress travel. [Instead] people [can] wait in Montreal for maybe two hours for their next flight but in the comfort of a restaurant or with their iPad and something like that instead of the road."

There are currently around 326,000 people living in the airport's target service area, Bellehumeur said.

For the project to be profitable, Bellehumeur says they need to welcome 40,000 passengers over the next few years, with the first-year target being 17,000 travellers.

'Cautious Optimism'

Évelyne Beaudin, mayor of Sherbrooke, says she has "cautious optimism" about this project.

"The reason I'm cautious is that profit will begin when we have 40,000 passengers," said Beaudin.

"The main question is, when will we reach 40,000 passengers? Is it in one year, three years or 10 years? Because during the time we are under 40,000 passengers, we have to provide public funding to help the company to begin with this project," said Beaudin.

Although some studies have been conducted, she says the next steps will be to get a real sense of residents' interest.

"How much are the people ready to pay to avoid Montreal traffic and parking fees in Montreal? We really have to try to understand what's in the customer's mind," said Beaudin.

Environmental consideration

Geneviève La Roche, a Sherbrooke city councillor, told Radio-Canada that the environmental impact will have to be considered carefully.

"For me, air transportation in 2022 is something we need to continue to question and I would very much like to revisit and ask some more detailed questions," said La Roche.

Coun. Hélène Dauphinais agrees.

"We have seen the big impacts of climate change, so I cannot believe that people will continue to travel at the same rhythm as before," Dauphinais told Radio-Canada.

Bellehumeur says environmental concerns are going to be addressed in the coming months, along with other details such as the number of available tickets and the cost of the flights.