Air France opens Montreal lounge

19^th Aug 2021

The Air France lounge at Montreal has been fully redesigned. Operated by Plaza Premium, the lounge has vast windows overlooking the runways and Mount Royal. Within the main lounge area, there is plenty of seating including large sofas, plus a large bar with French wines and champagnes.

Air France has opened its fully redesigned lounge at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport for Business Class customers, and it's most Frequent Flyers, carrying a Flying Blue Elite Plus card.

The lounge itself is a large area, with seats for 149 passengers, occupying 490 square meters (5,300 square feet, or 513 square yards).

The main area of the lounge is in effect one large room, with floor to ceiling windows, broken up with vertical wood dividers, matching the polished wooden floor, where seats and large sofas are available for everyone to relax, eat or work in comfort. The room itself has a large bar half way along the area, and a dining area at the far end.

Air France worked together with Canadian companies to create most of the furniture and lighting. The Air France colours - shades of blue, greys and whites, with touches of red - are dominant, as well as the Accent, the Air France brand symbol, and the winged seahorse, the company's historical symbol, reminding everyone of its rich history. Champagne lacquered metal screens provide structure to the lounge. The old lounge was a bright red colour, and while red also features here, it isn't very prominent.

In the entrance area there is a vast white staircase (plus also a lift) set against deep blue walls, with the Air France historical brand logo, the winged seahorse, right in front of you.

The lounge itself is operated by Plaza Premium, who also provide the lounge staff; while in some ways this may be seen as a downgrade - as the lounge staff may not be able to answer some complex booking queries - it is a move that is becoming quite common, with airlines like Etihad and Virgin Atlantic outsourcing their lounge staff.

The window side of the lounge is made largely of 2+2 seat groups, with large winged seats. These look superb, but may not suit most customers, who are often travelling solo.

Next to the main refectory area there is a vast blue circular bench type seat, but only 5 dining tables: again, it remains to be seen how this will work in practice.

The catering is centred around French cuisine, with a self-service buffet having hot and cold, savoury and sweet dishes which varies throughout throughout the day. The company also offers vegetarian and gluten-free dishes.

The large bar also offers a wide selection of French wines and champagnes.

From this autumn, the lounge will introduce a new dedicated catering service in the pre-flight dining 'Night Service' area, for Business customers travelling from Montreal to Paris on the last evening flight when they may want to sleep for most of the short flight. Instead they can be served a meal identical to that served on board, with the full meal service including starters, hot dishes, cheese, desserts and a wine and champagne list, after which their meal tray will not be loaded on the flight.

There is a small work area, however throughout the lounge free Wi-Fi and USB sockets are also available close to most of the seats.

For the most elite of passengers, there is a much smaller lounge area, with and area acting like a lounge within a lounge, for Flying Blue Ultimate customers. This is a much more private space, with large sofas and seats.

The Montreal Air France lounge in is open every day from 2pm to 10pm for Air France and KLM customers. Access is free for Business and Flying Blue Elite Plus customers, and customers travelling in Economy or Premium Economy can also purchase lounge access subject to availability.

Air France opens Montreal lounge

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