Story ID: 134MetroAIN1217
Metro Aviation Turns 35
By: Mark Huber
Caption: Becoming an early adopter of simulator training is among the company's achievements.
Word Count: 304
Louisiana-based Metro Aviation is marking its 35th year in business. Metro is the largest privately owned, traditional air medical operator. In addition, it operates  a completion center and fields a fleet of more than 140 aircraft for 35 air medical programs across the country.

Over the course of three-and-a-half decades, Metro became the first operator to equip its entire fleet with night-vision goggles (NVGs) and partnered with FlightSafety International to build the world’s first level-D, full-motion EC135 simulator and the Western Hemisphere’s first level-D full-motion EC145 simulator. Metro was among the first companies to see the benefit of simulator time for pilots, sending them to train in other model types before simulators for their fleet even existed. In addition, Metro was one of three Part 135 operators out of 2,200 to reach Level IV of the FAA’s Safety Management System Pilot Program, and the only Part 145 certificate holder to reach Level IV.

Metro's Helicopter Flight Training Center (HFTC) in Shreveport, Louisiana, attracts clients worldwide including Aerios Global earlier this year, the first South African company to train there. The offshore and land-based helicopter services company, stationed in Cape Town, operates a variety of aircraft including an EC120, AS350, AS365 and the EC145. The EC145 was retrofitted in Pennsylvania by Paradigm Aerospace Corporation, a Metro Aviation company, for Aerios.

Metro has added services over the last decade that include a smartphone app to request a helicopter; a customer support team to aid operations customers with billing and business management;  holding the annual Leadership Education, Advancement and Development Conference; and making large inventory investment to reduce program down times.

“We have always been invested in our customer as a partner, and because of that we have enjoyed a slow and steady growth,” says Metro CEO Mike Stanberry.