Originally Posted by
jrl767
I'd have to guess we are talking about a De Haviland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter ... I know Rio Airways and Metro Airlines were big Twin Ot users, but I'm not certain that they were in as large a market as SAT-IAH (although the 1x/week frequency in the first appearance of this question would seem to suggest Metro, since they basically hubbed at IAH while XO was more of a Dallas-centered operation)
47-C. Yes, it was Metro Airlines (HY), formerly known as Houston Metro, which also had a wholly-owned division, Metroflight (FY), which in turn had established a small hub at Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) at this time. Together, Metro and Metroflight were serving destinations in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas in 1983.
Now why would Metro fly only one de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter flight a week on Saturdays from San Antonio to Houston Intercontinental where it indeed operated a hub? The answer may lie in a stand alone route that Metro was operating with the Twin Otter at this time between San Antonio and Laredo (LRD) as part of their Eastern Express service with four daily SAT-LRD round trips being flown. Perhaps this Saturday only SAT-IAH service was an aircraft positioning flight to get the Twin Otter back to the Houston area for maintenance. Aircraft could also be swapped out in this fashion, of course. And BTW, the 2,500 foot runway I mentioned above was located at the Clear Lake City (CLC) STOLport near the NASA Johnson Space Center. Metro constructed and owned this private airfield which had a hangar for Twin Otter maintenance and was initially based at CLC.
Now then.....we are still looking for the remaining unidentified air carrier that was operating both jet and turboprop equipment in 1983 from SAT to IAH via a code sharing arrangement with a major airline. And here's another hint: the turboprop type was quite a bit larger than the Twin Otter.