Life At The Airport

Hello there!

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far! I am new on the blog team so I will start by introducing myself. My name is Nicolas Bernier and I just completed my first year at Embry-Riddle. I am studying in Aviation Business Administration and I fly as a minor to obtain my instrument rating. I live in Montreal, Canada, the Great White North!

For my first blog, I will talk about my new summer job. I am happy because it is in a field that I am currently studying at ERAU. About two weeks ago, I started to work in the Finance Department at Montréal-Trudeau Intl. Airport (YUL).

Aéroports de Montréal logo.

Aéroports de Montréal logo.

My supervisor makes me do a lot of different things and I love it! During the first few days, I gathered all the flight schedules of all the carriers flying in and out of the airport for the next winter season. For example, Qatar Airways plans to operate three weekly flights to Doha on a 77W aircraft, commonly known as the Boeing 777-300ER. From the Excel table I have, I can determine if a carrier reduced or increased its number of flights to the airport for this winter compared to last winter. I am also able to see new routes or if a service to a destination got cancelled.

Aéroports de Montréal, the company I work for, manages both the international airport and the Montréal-Mirabel Intl. Airport (YMX), the latter one only being use for cargo flights. Last week, I compiled the number of kilograms of the inbound and outbound cargo of each air carrier for both airports. I made the calculation per month for 2014 and for the first quarter of 2015.

I am happy to have taken the Advanced Computer Based Systems class last semester because knowing how to use Excel and Access helps me a lot and saves time. But if I do not remember how to do everything, I can just ask for help and the people I work with will be glad to help me. Most of the times I ask Google though.

One of the thing I like the most about my job is that I am surrounded by airplanes taking off and landing and also by people who love aviation, just like at Embry-Riddle. Aéroports de Montréal’s administrative office is located on the last floor of a 10-story Marriott hotel facing the US bound concourse. During break, I often like to go eat lunch somewhere in the terminal. I am only limited to the stores and restaurants in the public area; I do not have the pass which would give me access to the boarding area on the other side of the security.

The last two floors of the Marriott hotel are used as administrative offices for Aéroports de Montréal.

The last two floors of the Marriott hotel are used as administrative offices for Aéroports de Montréal.

View of the Transborder Concourse from the 10th floor.

View of the Transborder Concourse from the 10th floor.

This wraps up my first post. I am really excited about this job and cannot wait to discover and learn new stuff. On my next blog, I will share more experiences about my job. Stay tuned!

Until next time!

Nicolas