Montreal. Busses all the way.

Arrived in Montreal for IETF. Last leg on a 747, the bus, just in time before there’s a public transport strike. And the previous leg was a rare chance to ride a mobile lounge from the plane to the airport, before that a 787 and a 350 and a 740 😀 Was good to start discussions already during the trip, many friends on same flights and buses ❤️

Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport offers a peculiar throwback to aviation history: the mobile lounge. These boxy, slow-moving vehicles transport passengers directly from the terminal to aircraft parked on the tarmac, eliminating the need for traditional jet bridges or shuttle buses. Cumbersome and dated. But also a rare glimpse into the 1960s technology innovation.

Today, mobile lounges survive at only two airports worldwide: Montreal and Washington Dulles. What was once envisioned as the future of airport design has been almost entirely replaced by more efficient systems. They are still oddly charming. They may be slow, but they're certainly memorable. And for once, I feared more for something else to break than my cranky old 740...

I have not written previously about this airport, but been there many times. And I've talked about visits to Montreal for other activities, including biking to Mont Royal and exploring the Caverne de Saint-Léonard, as well as enjoying the sauna at the Fairmont the Queen Elizabeth.

To get here though I had to travel through Heathrow, for instance. Fortunately we had the pleasure of hanging out short seven hour layover in the British Airways business lounge. With all the screens, the horses, and ... no phone booths for conference calls???

But what I really liked was the long underground walking path from Terminal 5 to the satellite terminals B and C:

And before Heathrow, there was a Finnair flight on Airbus A350-XWB. For once I was able to upgrade, so business class breakfast was quite nice. But I ate it quickly and slept almost all of the rest of the three hour flight.

And before that flight there was the Helsinki-Vantaa airport ... here Tero taught us a new thing: from the Finnair Non-Schengen Business Lounge there's a backdoor to exit directly to the pathway towards the gates, without going back through the lounge checkin. Nice!

Here were my tickets for the flights:

This article has also been published in Planetflier.com here. For more flying stories, check out the Planetflier.com website! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot! Photos, videos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.