Silver Airways announced today that it has ceased operations, effective immediately. While this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, it’s still an unfortunate situation for the airline’s passengers and employees.
Silver Airways has been Struggling Financially
For those not familiar with the airline, Silver Airways was a regional U.S. airline that operated operating flights between gateways in Florida, the Southeast and The Bahamas. Its fleet was comprised of turboprop aircraft including the ATR-42 and ATR-72.
Back in December 2024 the Florida based carrier announced that it was filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and would make efforts to restructure. At the time, the carrier had an aggressive restructuring plan which would see it emerge from bankruptcy in the first quarter of 2025.
Instead of emerging from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy as expected, in March of this year, the carrier’s financial situation got noticeably worse and it abruptly cancelled all flights at Orlando International Airport (MCO). Orlando was the airline’s third largest station.
Today, the airline posted a message to its Instagram page stating that, as part of its restructuring, it entered into a transaction to sell its assets to another airline holding company. This company decided not to continue Silver’s flight operations in Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean.
Honestly, I’m surprised that the airline held on as long as it did given the struggles it was facing. It appears that the carrier knew that this asset sale was coming and I feel that they could have done more to prepare passengers for the cessation of operations though I don’t know the terms of the deal.
Summary
Silver Airways has ceased all operations, effective immediately, after the company sold its assets to another airline holding company that elected to not continue Silver’s flight operations in Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean. The airline has advised affected customers that it will issue refunds through credit card companies or travel agencies.
(Image courtesy ATR)
