In 2016, the Montréal-Trudeau airport in Montreal, QC, Canada celebrated its 75th anniversary. To commemorate this special occasion, the airport has revealed a special app (available on the iTunes store or in its interactive form online), which tells the history of the airport, marks significant events that affected the airport (such as Beatlemania or the 9/11 attacks) and also features stories by 12 well-known figures, to whom the airport has a special meaning.
One of these well-known figures is Chuck Comeau from Simple Plan, who reminisced about the beginnings of his band’s travels, which used to always start and end at the Montréal-Trudeau airport.
Check out Chuck’s interesting take on the Montréal-Trudeau airport’s history below:
Simple Plan cultivates that close connection with their admirers, just as they enjoy a comfortable familiarity with Montréal-Trudeau employees. “We’ve passed through the airport hundreds of times,” says Comeau. “We’ve taken so many flights that some of the security staff recognize us now. They’ll say things like ‘You again?’ or ‘We haven’t seen you in a while!’ We have definitely spent a lot of time in the Montreal airport, especially from 2002 to 2009. When we first started out, we were on the road 300 days a year. We’d come back, visit our parents to do some laundry, and be off again the next day. Montréal-Trudeau was like our second home.”
Not that the experience ever lost its thrill. “It’s still a blast. Sure, in the beginning, everything was new. None of us had families yet. We’d take off on an adventure, never knowing what might await us. But even now, I get excited as the departure date approaches. Every time we go somewhere, it’s to realize our dream. And when we fly to a place we’ve never been, it’s even more fun.”
Coming back to Montreal is all about familiarity and reconnecting with their longtime fans. “The fans still come to welcome us at Montréal-Trudeau, just not hundreds of them anymore. After all, we’re here so often, people would have to pretty much live here if they wanted to greet us every single time! Sometimes, when we arrive in certain countries and the welcome committee is small, we wonder whether our popularity is waning, but not here. Here is home.”