Lounge Review: Air Canada (Transborder) Maple Leaf Lounge - Montréal (YUL)
Review Contents
On a recent trip from Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL) to Austin, I had a chance to visit the Air Canada Maple Leaf (Transborder) Lounge. The lounge is located above Gate 73 in the transborder terminal and is open daily from 05:00 to 20:00 (8 pm).
Note: there is also a Transborder Air Canada Café (directly across from this lounge), but I did not have a chance to visit.
Location and Access
The lounge is located towards the end of the transborder terminal near gate 73. Once through the glass doors, take the stairs or the elevator (up) to get to the lounge area, where you will be greeted at the reception desk. For my flight that day, I was traveling on a Business Class ticket and was able to enter the lounge by simply scanning my boarding pass at the desk. When I arrived around 4pm on a Saturday, there was no wait, and the lounge was about 50% full. The person greeting me simply said "Bonjour—Hello" and nothing else after checking in, so I would say they could improve their customer service a bit. As far as access goes, there are other ways to enter Air Canada lounges, including airline status, credit card perks, and day passes.
What is a Transborder Terminal?
Transborder terminals (or transborder departure areas) are found at most major Canadian airports (as well as select other non-Canadian airports). These terminals are isolated from the rest of the airport and dedicated to flights into the United States. The nice part of these terminals is that you clear U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) before leaving, so when you arrive in the United States, you don't need to go through customs or immigration again. From a lounge perspective, this means if you are on a flight to the U.S., then you are generally only allowed to access lounges in the transborder departure area and typically cannot access lounges in the airport's domestic or international departure terminals.
Lounge Amenities
This Maple Leaf lounge offers basic amenities and comfort to customers. Food and beverages are located in the center of the lounge with seating areas found throughout the lounge, all in a single large room. There is a TV (that was showing hockey) and a complimentary PressReader service for customers to use and download magazines or newspapers to their device while in the lounge. The lounge offers a printer, free Wi-Fi, and flight monitors (FIDS) showing flights departing in the terminal. There did seem to be a lack of charging ports, but they did offer a free checkout of a battery pack while in the lounge. I think the top amenity in the lounge was the large windows with panoramic views of the ramp and runway area.
Seating and Work Areas
There is varied seating across the lounge. There are seating areas for groups, for single travelers, and for those wanting a table for dining. Additionally, there is a TV area at one end with chairs and small side tables. There is no dedicated quiet area or business center, but there are areas in the lounge where you can focus on work if needed.
Furthermore, there is also seating along the window with comfortable leather chairs as well as table seating facing out the window. This is where I spent most of my time!
Food and Beverage
The lounge provides hot and cold food, snacks, sweets, and a wide range of beverages. Everything in the lounge is self-serve, including the bar. There is a main warm buffet area, a cold area with dips, veggies, and salad, and two side tables with beverages. While I was there, I had some soup, pesto pasta salad, and hummus. Strangely, there was no pita bread or crackers, but it was still nice to have a snack.
Located near the buffet was a stand-alone beverage station offering ice, fountain drinks, juices, and canned sodas. In this same area there were bagels and a conveyor toaster. One thing I did not see in the lounge was a filtered water station (which is found at most lounges around the globe).
The self-serve bar offered three draft beer options, including two local Canadian beers, and multiple wine choices. There were also 15+ different types of bottled spirits and liqueurs so you could create your own cocktail or preferred beverage mix. On the other side of the table, there was a Lavazza espresso machine for making various types of coffee drinks.
Restrooms and Showers
The restrooms were slightly small and a bit worn but did have a private stall, a sink, and a urinal. They provided soap, lotion, and tissues at the sink area. The lounge does not have a shower but does offer a baby changing table and wheelchair accessible restroom. There was no queue to enter the restroom, and I only used it once.
Internet, Noise, and Charging
While I was in the lounge, the noise level was classified as a quiet office at 48.6 dB. I also tested the Wi-Fi, and the speed was mediocre. I connected to the network without any issues and ran two speed tests around 3:45 pm with an average of 24.9 Mbps (down) and 9.8 Mbps (up), with a 7 ms ping time.
There were not many places to plug in for charging, and none of the ports offered USB charging. But they do offer free portable battery packs you can check out for use while in the lounge.
Overall Rating: 2.7*
Pros: great ramp and runway views, self-serve stocked bar and other drinks, local Canadian beer.
Cons: no full-service bar, limited food options, dirty and worn-down seating and tables, limited charging spots, customer service could be improved, no quiet area.
- Amenities: 2.9
- Food: 3
- Beverages: 3.2
- Seating, Tables, and Work Areas: 2.6
- Service: 2.2
- Wow-Factor: 2
* scored using Nerd Score 1.0
Learn more on the Montreal Air Canada Lounges information page.
Related
Closing Thoughts
There are currently four lounges in the Montreal (YUL) Transborder Terminal, including this Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge, the Air Canada Café, the Desjardins Odyssey Lounge, and the National Bank World MasterCard Lounge. Although I have not been there, I think the best is likely the Air Canada Café lounge (which opened in March 2026). This Maple Leaf lounge is in a great location; it just needs to be renovated.