Metro Airlines, originally Houston Metro Airlines, was a commuter airline that was originally headquartered in Houston, Texas, United States,. Metro subsequently moved its headquarters to north Texas. The airline had an operational base located on the grounds of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and also had offices on the airport property and in Grapevine, Texas. Metro evolved into an airline holding company with the acquisition or creation of a number of different airlines, including as the banner carrier (commercial aviation) operating feeder services for Eastern Airlines as Eastern Metro Express which was based in Atlanta, GA and Metroflight which operated American Eagle service from the Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1993, and the assets were acquired by AMR Simmons Airlines. History In 1969 the airline was founded to serve the Houston area with "cross-town" flights. Houston Metro Airlines constructed their own 2,500 foot, short take-off and landing (STOL) airstrip along with a passenger terminal building and maintenance hangar adjacent to Clear Lake City, Texas near the NASA Johnson Space Center. The Clear Lake City STOLport was essentially Houston Metro's own private airport. The airline's initial route linked Clear Lake City (CLC) with Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH) which opened in 1969. In early 1970, Houston Metro was operating two routes: Clear Lake City - Houston Intercontinental and Houston Hobby Airport (HOU) - Houston Intercontinental. The February 1, 1970 Houston Metro timetable lists 24 round trip flights every weekday between the CLC STOLport and Houston Intercontinental and 14 round trip flights every weekday between Houston Hobby and Houston Intercontinental. According to the February 1976 edition of the Official Airline Guide (OAG), the airline was operating 22 roundtrip flights every weekday in its passenger shuttle operation between Clear Lake City and Houston Intercontinental. The route system was later expanded to include a number of destinations in southeast and south Texas with flights to George Bush Intercontinental Airport. At one point, the airline also flew between Laredo, TX (LRD) and San Antonio, TX (SAT). All initial Houston Metro service was operated with de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter twin turboprop STOL aircraft as the Clear Lake City STOLport was specifically designed for this aircraft. Additional new service was later extended to Lafayette, LA (LFT) and Lake Charles, LA (LCH) with flights to Houston Intercontinental (IAH) with these services being operated with larger Short 330 twin turboprop aircraft. The Short 330 was