Air Canada Opens First Lounge at Québec City Airport (YQB)

Québec City’s airport just got its first Air Canada lounge. Air Canada has opened a 97-seat Air Canada Café at Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport (YQB), which the airline calls the first dedicated premium lounge experience in the terminal.

The Café is run in partnership with Plaza Premium, and it’s the seventh location in Air Canada’s growing Café network. It’s also the latest piece of the airline’s multi-year plan to modernize its lounges.

Québec City hasn’t had much of a lounge scene lately. The airport’s previous option, the pay-per-use VIP Lounge by Club Med, has been closed since August 2025 for an overhaul, and the airport’s own replacement lounge isn’t open yet. For now, the Air Canada Café is the only lounge in the terminal.

If you’re flying out of Québec City with status or in business class, it’s a real upgrade to the pre-flight wait. Below is who gets in, and what the space looks like.

Who Qualifies for Access

Access mirrors Air Canada’s usual premium lounge rules, so the same status and tickets that open the Maple Leaf Lounge doors elsewhere will work here.

Aeroplan Elite 50K members and above
Star Alliance Gold members
Premium Aeroplan co-branded credit card holders
Business class passengers flying Air Canada or Star Alliance flights out of Québec City

For the full breakdown of how lounge eligibility works across the network, our guide to accessing Maple Leaf Lounges covers every path.

On the card side, the premium Aeroplan co-branded cards are your ticket. That includes the American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card, the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card, and the CIBC Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card, all of which carry Maple Leaf Lounge access as a core perk.

One detail surprised me. Because Plaza Premium Group is the operating partner, I figured Priority Pass or DragonPass might get you in, the way the Aspire Air Canada Café at Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport (YTZ) works.

That isn’t the case here. The Billy Bishop café is the only Air Canada lounge in the country you can enter on a lounge membership. At Québec City, access comes down to Air Canada status, a premium cabin, or an Aeroplan card.

Where to Find It

The Café is on the second floor of the main terminal, between gates 28 and 29. It’s open daily from 4am to 8pm, early enough to catch the first wave of morning departures.

What It’s Like Inside

The space runs 3,616 square feet, with 97 seats split between productivity-style spots for working and quieter corners to unwind. Power sits at every seat, including USB-C ports strong enough to charge a laptop.

Visually, it leans hard into local character. Air Canada calls the look Glowing Hearted, built to reflect Québec City’s art de vivre and the region’s French heritage.

Two large artworks anchor the room, one from Québec abstract artist Antonietta Grassi and another from novelist and visual artist Douglas Coupland.

The food is where the local angle really shows. The self-serve menu includes breakfast pancakes with maple butter and a pumpkin seed spread from the Mi’gmaq Nation of Gespeg, a build-your-own power bowl bar, and a selection of local cheeses and artisanal jams.

The bar pours Lavazza coffee, cocktails featuring Distillerie du Fjord, and beers from local brewery La Souche. Vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options are labelled, with allergen information throughout.

Local food and beverage offerings at the Air Canada Café in Québec City — Some of the local food and beverage offerings at the new Air Canada Café in Québec City.

My colleagues toured Air Canada’s Vancouver Cafés earlier this year, and the grab-and-go format is a different animal from a traditional Maple Leaf Lounge. It’s lighter on space and full table service, and heavier on quick, quality bites before you board.

Part of a Bigger Lounge Push

The Québec City Café follows Air Canada’s recent Café opening and refreshed domestic Maple Leaf Lounge at Montréal-Trudeau, part of a steady push into the Québec market.

The airline says it added more than 500 lounge seats worldwide last year, and the Café concept has become its main tool for bringing premium space to airports that can’t support a full lounge.

We’ve followed the concept as it rolled out, from the new Café in Montreal (YUL) to the latest Vancouver (YVR) location at Gate C50.

Conclusion

I love Québec City, but I’ve never loved getting there by air. The flight options were thin, and with no Air Canada lounge to settle into, I’d usually fly into Montreal and then rent a car or take the train for the last stretch.

A dedicated Air Canada space changes that math. If you’re an Aeroplan 50K member or you hold one of the premium Aeroplan cards, it’s a real reason to book through Québec City instead of routing around it. I’m already looking forward to flying out of there in the near future.

My anticipation is that we’ll keep seeing these Cafés show up at mid-size Canadian airports before Air Canada builds another full Maple Leaf Lounge. A café is a lighter-touch space than the full version, and for a short domestic hop, a good coffee and a power outlet is most of what I want anyway.