Metro Airlines - Metro Holding Company Acquisitions and Subsidiaries

Metro Holding Company Acquisitions and Subsidiaries

Metro Airlines spun off its certificated airline, being Metro Airlines, and formed an airline holding company. Among the commuter and regional air carriers acquired or created by Metro were:

• Brockway Air - acquired in the summer of 1989, Metro changed Brockway's name to Metro Air Northeast, but operated as a banner carrier codeshare partner flying as TWExpress on behalf of Trans World Airlines (TWA).
• Chaparral Airlines - merged into the operations of wholly owned subsidiary Metroflight for "the American Eagle codeshare branded banner flying". Chaparral had operated American Eagle service primarily from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) on behalf of American Airlines before being merged into Metroflight.
• Metro Express II - spun off from the original Metro Airlines for "the Eastern Express codeshare branded banner flying". This regional airline was based in Atlanta, GA and operated as Eastern Metro Express flying British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31 and de Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8 twin turboprop aircraft. Eastern Metro Express provided passenger feed at the Eastern Airlines hub located at Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport (ATL).
• Sunaire - name changed to Aviation Associates. This commuter air carrier operated as Eastern Express in the Caribbean flying de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter turboprops and providing passenger feed at the Eastern Airlines hub located at the San Juan International Airport (SJU). Service was flown to St. Croix (STX), St. Thomas (STT), Tortola, BVI (EIS), Virgin Gorda, BVI (VIJ) and other short haul destinations in the Caribbean. The Eastern Express service was primarily operated from San Juan although point-to-point flights between various other islands were flown as well. The Twin Otter was well suited for flights into Virgin Gorda as the airport runway on this island was an unpaved sand and gravel airstrip at the time.
• Eastern Express - Metro also operated feeder services as Eastern Express for Eastern Airlines to and from Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH) during the mid-1980s flying de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter turboprops. Destinations served on a nonstop basis from IAH by this Eastern Express service included Beaumont/Port Arthur, TX (BPT); Clear Lake City, TX (CLC), Lake Charles, LA (LCH); Longview, TX (GGG); Sugar Land, TX (SGR); Tyler, TX (TYR); and Victoria, TX (VCT). Metro was also operating Eastern Express service at this time from San Antonio International Airport (SAT) with service to Laredo, TX (LRD)