YUL Plane Spotting Montreal

Giant steel bird observatory

Jérémie from Montreal

"There are bird spotters, trainspotters... and plane spotters - and this is where they meet in Montreal! Ready for some plane spotting in YUL?"

There are bird spotters, trainspotters, airplane spotters, spot spotters…. Here I want to mention the third kind of spotter I listed: airplane spotters, and more specifically a location from which to spot airplanes landing in or taking off from Montreal. Conveniently, it’s located at the beginning of the Montreal airport landing runway.

It’s by the occasion of my many city exploration sessions on my bike that I ended at that roundabout. I was planning to cycle around the airport, which I did, and I realised that one place had way too many people parked for a Sunday afternoon, especially in that industrial area that's mostly dead at the end of the week.

Funny thing - going to that spot makes you approach it as if you were landing: you need to slow down, because that street is a dead end with a roundabout, and then you need to speed up again as if you were taking off when leaving it by the same path.

I also like the advertising structure, almost fixed to the ground and only visible from the ground… But having it higher would be problematic for the planes landing.

Relaxing

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Montreal Spotter Jérémie

My work is my best travel agency, I’m a color scientist, and since the early 2000s, I started to explore other countries and cities where my specialty brought me. Originally from Paris where I always like to go back, I lived in Oslo, Berlin (where I used to be a spotter as well), and now in Montreal since 2017. I’m finally working in the movie industry after joining the VFX studio DNEG at their Montreal office in the summer of 2022. I like to take pictures, to stay creative, and I’m always ready for city exploration on my bike or in my running shoes. If you like art galleries, music shops, and...

About this spot

1599 Boulevard Pitfield

no-price

Oct 6, 2025

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