The airport transport sector is constantly evolving, and our knowledge of it is regularly expanding. Five members of our transport team flew to Madrid last week to participate in the 2025 Passenger Terminal Expo, an annual international conference and trade show on airport design. Architects Catherine Demers, Nicolas Ranger, Olivier Boucher, Julien Landry, and Joannie Quirion were able to explore current design challenges and discover new trends by meeting international specialists. Among the topics that caught our colleagues’ attention were:

• Sustainable airport design and operations, in a context in which air transport must be reformed to meet targets for greenhouse gas emission reduction and eventually become carbon neutral.
• Decarbonizing air terminals by using alternative energy sources, geothermal energy, and energy storage.
• Developing solar farms on airport land while considering related safety and maintenance issues.
• Sustainable terminal construction by reducing waste, reusing materials, and maintaining existing infrastructure.
• Developing a “sense of place” by integrating unique, local commercial offerings and events, as well as leisure activities.
• The importance of planning facilities with clear wayfinding, adjusting space to serve diverse users with limited mobility, and ultimately successfully designing for universal accessibility to ensure social acceptance, efficient operations, and customer loyalty.
• Designing and managing airports as respectful and inclusive workplaces.
• The importance of reinforcing the connectivity and mobility between airport towns and their surrounding regions to attract workers and companies that, for example, ship extensively by air, as well as encouraging active transit and service sharing to create a dynamic and diverse place.
• Compilations and analyses of hard, factual data, such as pedestrian and vehicular flows, which allow an understanding of user behaviour (of passengers, employees, related service staff, etc.) and a better response to needs.

By attending project presentations on how to support the growth of passenger traffic, such as SOM’s satellite pier at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, our team was able to explore the challenges of developing airport sites similar to those at Montréal-Trudeau International Airport, both on the airside and landside. They were also able to hone their knowledge of issues specific to airport operations and the flexibility needed to adapt to service disruptions caused by the weather, health crises, or equipment breakdowns. As in previous years, their visit to the trade show provided an opportunity to discover the latest innovations in airport equipment, such as mobile check-in, baggage drop-off, and boarding kiosks, as well as equipment for search points.

In passing, we congratulate Aéroports de Montréal, for again winning first place for "Best Airport Staff Service in North America" again this year, as well as the prize for "World’s Cleanest Airports in North America" at the Skytrax World Airport Awards 2025, presented at this Expo.

Our colleagues took advantage of their short stay in Madrid to visit several must-see architecture projects, such as Terminal 4 of the Madrid-Barajas Adolfo-Suárez Airport by RHSP and Estudio Lamela—"“the most significant building of 2006"—, the CaixaForum cultural centre by Herzog & de Meuron, the expansion of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía by Jean Nouvel, and the Madrid Atocha railway station.

Jodoin Lamarre Pratte architectes has been working on projects at Montréal-Trudeau International Airport since 1987, first for Transport Canada, and since 1992 for Aéroports de Montréal (ADM). These successive mandates, mostly resulting from accreditation periods, represent nearly 300 studies and projects focused on enhancing passenger experiences through the expansion and modernization of existing facilities, improving operational efficiency, and bringing existing buildings into compliance with complex industry codes and standards. Our team designed the Connection Centre for Passengers in Transit—premiered by ADM in 2019 in Stockholm—and the new automated baggage drop-off area; and participated in the design of the P4 Parking Facility and the major expansion and redevelopment phases of the airport (2005, 2009, and 2016). Since 2017, the firm has been working on the design of the future REM station at the airport, and since 2023 on the development program for city-side facilities depuis 2023.

The firm participated in several past editions of the Passenger Terminal Expo, including in 2017 and 2023 in Amsterdam, 2018 in Stockholm, and 2019 in London.