Airline Name
MetroJetIATA: US [shared] / ICAO: USA [shared] / CALLSIGN: US AIR [shared]
Founded and commenced operations in 1998 (Jun. 1st), ceased operations in 2001 (Dec.)
(Reintegrated into USAir, its parent company)NOTE: Not to be confused with the very similarly named Russian airline, MetroJet was a division of USAir (later US Airways), fully operated and managed by the airline, and thus derives its IATA, ICAO and callsign from it.
Country of Origin
United States of America, North America ()
Main Hub(s): Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI)
Aircraft Types Used (from those available in WoA)
(All operated aircraft types are present in WoA already - or are planned to be.)Aircraft operated:
Boeing 737 (-200 Adv, B732) - 36 former.
(Pictured below: N273AU - now known as YI-APW, stored)Just wanted to put some really cool shots I found here real quick:
(Pictured below: N241US, N266AU, N257AU and N255AU, respectively - N241US later broken up, N266AU now known as N878DG and is preserved, N257AU later broken up, known as C5-NYA at end of its life, and N255AU later broken up, known as C5-IFY at end of its life)Now, with that aside, there was actually an alternative “interim” livery scheme for this airline, featuring aircraft still with the standard markings and scheme of USAir, having yet to receive the standard MetroJet livery, though bearing MetroJet titles.
Here’s what that looked like:(Pictured below: N232US - now known as XA-TXD, stored)
Why should this airline be added?
Founded in 1998 after low-cost carriers, namely that of Southwest, began intensifying competition on the East Coast, which was considered to be USAir’s strongest region, MetroJet was a fully owned low-cost (or “no-frills”) division of the airline, meant to allow USAir to better compete with other potentially threatening LCCs.
However, due to a combination of factors over the next few years, such as the 737-200s being among the oldest and least fuel-efficient aircraft in USAir’s fleet, extremely high labor costs, and finally the events of 9/11 disrupting the airline industry, USAir would announce their plans to shut down MetroJet operations just under two weeks past 9/11, and operations would cease later that year in December.This would be a fun little event airline addition to see in-game, having a rather good looking main livery, with the alternate ‘interim’ livery making for a nice bonus if implemented as well; it would be great to see with the upcoming B732 addition, and maybe even could come with USAir too.
Additionally, the airline’s route map shows that throughout their somewhat short tenure as an airline, they served a large majority of airports especially along the East Coast, though did also fly to IAD and MSY, making them great event material for those airports.
ROUTE MAP:
SOURCES:
MetroJet’s Planespotters.net page
MetroJet’s Wikipedia page
