Mirabel airport on Wednesday marked the coming end of an era by asking for proposals to redevelop its terminal when passenger flights stop arriving later this year.

The airport near Montreal, opened to great fanfare in 1975, will cease operating for passenger flights probably in November, leaving it only with cargo flight services and some light industry.

Aeroports de Montreal, the company running both the Mirabel and the Pierre Elliott Trudeau (formerly Dorval) airports, said it was looking for a viable, self-financing concept.

A PTV, used in Mirabel to carry passengers to aircrafts, in this 1975 file photo.

But it also held out the possibility of state economic aid or its own financial participation.

ADM said it would save "over $10 million" annually from the closure.

Montreal-Mirabel, at the time of its opening the biggest airport in the world, has proved to be a costly white elephant similar to the city's notoriously still unpaid-for Olympic stadium.

Its double hump-backed shuttle buses, rumoured to have cost $1 million apiece, stood as a symbol of the waste of taxpayers' money. In 2003, Mirabel made an operational loss of almost $18 million.

Transport Canada's decision to split traffic between international flights in Dorval and domestic flights in Mirabel proved disastrous.

Located 50 kilometres from Montreal, Mirabel simply never attracted enough activity to justify its existence as a passenger flight airport. Montreal's economic decline relative to Toronto also contributed to Air Canada's decision to make Toronto's Pearson airport its main international hub.

In 1997, scheduled passenger flights were transferred back to Montreal's old international airport, Dorval, and only freight, cargo and charter remained at Mirabel.

ADM, which took over the Montreal airports in 1992, said Mirabel had a successful, growing cargo operation, and had attracted industrial tenants like Bombardier.

In 2003, it moved about 110,000 tons of cargo. This compares with Frankfurt, Germany, which handled over 500,000 metric tons of cargo in the first quarter of 2004 alone.

The terminal complex includes a 5,000-space car park, a 355-room hotel and an eight-storey office building. It will be leased for a minimum of 20 years, renewable by five years until 2045.

Proposals, of which ADM said it had received "a few" already, must be submitted by September 15.