New York Operations - Metro Helicopters

Metro has been in continuous operation in the New York area since the virtual airline was extablished in 2000, making us one of the longest running virtual airlines on VATSIM.

The Metro virtual headquarters and primary base of operations is at Teterboro Airport (KTEB), located in New Jersey, a few miles west of Manhattan. Metro currently operates a secondary base at the historic Floyd Bennett Field (NY22 or "CGAS" in Flight Simulator), in Brooklyn, NY. This base is used for MetroLife medevac flight operations. Metro training activities are based at Republic Airport (KFRG) in Farmingdale, Long Island, NY.

Simulated flight operations in the New York metropolitan area include:

• Air taxi service between Manhattan, New York City heliports (West 30th Street (JRA), East 34th Street (6N5) and the Downtown Manhattan Heliport (JRB)) to major New York area airports (JFK, LGA and EWR)
• On request site-seeing flights around Manhattan, and to the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor
• Charter flights for executive transport, in support of Homeland Security, for aerial photography/survey, priority package delivery, and electronic news gathering missions. Metro charter flights typically fly to regional airports in Westchester County, NY (KHPN), Connecticut (KBDR, KHFD, KHVN), Newburgh (KSWF), Poughkeepsie (KPOU) and Albany (KALB), New York; Eastern Long Island (KFRG, KISP, KHTO, KHWV,KMTP and KBID), Atlantic City (KAIY)and Trenton (KTTN), NJ and occasionally airports in Eastern Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
• Passenger transfers from other virtual airlines

Metro collaborates with our alliance partner Virtual Flight Options (VFO), a regional virtual airline, providing connecting flights (on VATSIM) from KTEB, KEWR, KJFK, and KLGA to New York City heliports, and other locations. Coordinated flight scheduling and connections provides an additional level of challenge and realism for pilots of both virtual airlines.

See the MetroLife Operations page of the Metro web site for details about our simulated medevac operations in the New York area.

Metro has a close working relationship with the NYARTCC air traffic management team, and provides input to helicopter ATC and operational procedures in the region (for the VATSIM simulated online flying environment). Many members of the NYARTCC are current and former pilots for Metro. Karl Kleiber, NYARTCC Air Traffic Manager, is one of the founding members of Metro Helicopters.

Some of the unique challenges of simulating helicopter virtual airline operations in the NYARTCC include: complex airspace including required use of numerous designated VFR helicopter routes, heavy airspace use by other virtual airlines, and busy heliport operations in confined areas, such as at East 34th Street (6N5) in Manhattan. Flights to helipads at major New York airports require operations in Class B airspace. A signifigant number of flights are also conducted in Class C and D airspace. Flights are sometimes made to privately owned and ship-board helipads.