In very late 2024, Florida regional carrier Silver Airways filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Silver Airways’ financials have always been a bit of a mystery, since the company is privately owned. However, over the years we’ve heard several stories of airports threatening to kick out the airline, after the company didn’t pay its bills. To state the obvious, that’s not normal for a stable airline.
With this bankruptcy protection filing, the company promised to continue to operate flights as usual, and planned on “emerging stronger” than ever in the first quarter of 2025, with a fresh balance sheet. Well, that doesn’t seem to be how things are playing out…
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Silver Airways’ operation is totally breaking down
In recent days, Silver Airways’ operation has become a mess in every way. For one, the flights that actually are operating are largely running many hours late.
For example, just look at the Flightradar24 history in recent days for the plane with the registration code N708SV. At this point, the airline just seems to consistently be running over four hours late, which is super frustrating for passengers, especially when you consider how short most of the carrier’s flights are.
The delayed flights are for those who are actually lucky. The airline has also been canceling quite a few flights, including just completely pulling out of Orlando International Airport (MCO). This was the carrier’s third largest station, and as of this past weekend, all flights from the airport have been canceled.
Passengers reporting showing up at the airport, only to find there were no longer any employees at the airport, and there was simply a sign indicating that customers should contact the airline call center by phone. The airline has also totally stopped updating its flight alerts page, so there’s no indication on Silver Airways’ website that the airline is no longer flying to or from the airport.
Via Fox 35 Orlando, the airport has confirmed that it received notification from the airline that it would cancel all flights effective immediately, but that’s the extent of the communication.
Silver Airways has stopped flying most planes
So, why has Silver Airways’ operation suddenly turned into such a mess, with a vast majority of flights either canceled or severely delayed? It appears that much of the carrier’s fleet has stopped flying in recent days, as flagged by NedsKid over at Enilria.
Silver Airways has 14 ATR turboprops, including eight 42-600s and six ATR 72-600s. At this point, only four of the ATR 42-600s are flying, and two of the ATR 72-600s are flying, at least for passenger flights. Beyond that, a few planes just suddenly stopped flying on February 27, and a couple more planes have been ferried to Sioux Falls, South Dakota (FSD).
So it’s hard to know exactly what’s going on here. In theory, airlines are supposed to be protected from creditors while in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. However, clearly the decision was reached to simply stop operating many routes.
Given how quickly this situation is spiraling, it sure seems likely to me that Silver Airways’ days must be numbered, or something.
Of course that’s sad for the employees, though it seems like this was inevitable, as it doesn’t seem like this was a healthy company even long before the bankruptcy protection filing came. As mentioned above, the airline had a history of not paying airports and even receiving threats to be evicted, which is no way to run a business.
Bottom line
Several weeks ago, Silver Airways filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, promising to continue operations as normal. Unfortunately things aren’t looking so good for the airline. In recent days, Silver Airways has completely pulled out of Orlando with no advance notice, other flights are either canceled or operating hours behind schedule, and many planes have seemingly been grounded.
We don’t know what’s going on at the airline, as there’s limited communication, but it’s not looking good…
What do you make of this Silver Airways situation?
My partner and I had long talked about grabbing a Silver flight from Tampa to Lauderdale just to do it....sadly I quite sure that ship has sailed.
My husband and I flew this airlines one time and one time only. By far the worst experience ever in every way possible. This really doesn't surprise me nor will it surprise me if they fade away completely.
Silver still owes me about $110 for a reimbursement for a hotel which I had to book after they canceled my flight almost a year ago (the flight was supposed to take off at 5pm, but was delayed bit by bit until it was canceled at 1am). I was told to book a hotel and submit my receipts to an email address. I still haven't recieved the refund yet. I've heard it's typical for them...
Silver still owes me about $110 for a reimbursement for a hotel which I had to book after they canceled my flight almost a year ago (the flight was supposed to take off at 5pm, but was delayed bit by bit until it was canceled at 1am). I was told to book a hotel and submit my receipts to an email address. I still haven't recieved the refund yet. I've heard it's typical for them to not process it and then reach out 5 days before the 1 year anniversary and say that there was an error with your submission, and you need to resubmit within 3 days or be unable to recieve your reimbursement permanently.
Anyone know if there is a way for me to get my money back if Silver goes under? Any help would be appreciated.
Realistically? Unfortunately it's not likely you'll see any of that. Or maybe one day two years after a liquidation, if you put in a claim, you'll get a check for $4.65.
I've gotten a refund for a ticket booked directly with them very quickly, but I also knew someone in authority (at the time) to call directly.
Looks like two aircraft are en route from Sioux Falls to COE, Couer D’Alene, in Washington state.
Sad times for 3M.
Coeur d'Alene is in Idaho.
It seems like there is a good amount of service in Florida between Orlando, Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville and Pensacola from the major and low cost airlines. Even Key West has intra Florida flights from American and Allegiant. Silver probably just got outcompeted. I don’t know much about their Caribbean operations, but the Florida stuff is already covered, or will be covered by additional routes/flights
And those flights are usually served by jets. American airline industry and passengers regard prop aircraft travel with some scepticism.
There's competition on many of Silver's routes, but for most of them Silver has a better schedule/frequency. They also allow a full size carry-on in their cheapest fare.
What has absolutely destroyed them is their horrible on time performance. That on time performance grid in the article above could just as easily pass for a typical day for Silver pre-bankruptcy. For intra-Florida, their longest flights can alternatively be driven in 7 hours. Those flights...
There's competition on many of Silver's routes, but for most of them Silver has a better schedule/frequency. They also allow a full size carry-on in their cheapest fare.
What has absolutely destroyed them is their horrible on time performance. That on time performance grid in the article above could just as easily pass for a typical day for Silver pre-bankruptcy. For intra-Florida, their longest flights can alternatively be driven in 7 hours. Those flights typically take 1.5 hours in the air. If you figure the time to/from the airport on each end, arriving at the airport an hour before departure, your best case scenario if everything goes well is generally saving about 3.5 hours vs driving. So being on-time is critical, and Silver just doesn't do it.
The Bahamas flights are a different story (can't drive there), but what you do have here is lots of people going on expensive tickets to/from expensive vacations who are connecting to Silver via codeshare flights from UA or B6, and Silver's tardiness makes them late getting to the Bahamas and worse yet makes them miss their onward connections over FLL coming back.
From talking to fellow Floridians who have flown Silver, none of them have said they dislike the fact that it's a turboprop. The -600 series of the ATR is surprisingly quiet in the cabin. Everyone just hates how unreliable they have been for a long time now.
I've flown Silver maybe two dozen times. Or rather intended to fly. Yes, delays are common, and their reply is typically "So? What's your point?" when you ask them what they expect you to do with an 8 hour delayed Key West to Ft Lauderdale flight connecting to United or JetBlue. Well, I'll call United and get put on their own (or Express) metal out of here. Good luck trying to get a refund on...
I've flown Silver maybe two dozen times. Or rather intended to fly. Yes, delays are common, and their reply is typically "So? What's your point?" when you ask them what they expect you to do with an 8 hour delayed Key West to Ft Lauderdale flight connecting to United or JetBlue. Well, I'll call United and get put on their own (or Express) metal out of here. Good luck trying to get a refund on a codeshare ticket where Silver did/didn't operate a portion. Thankful to United status they ate the refund amount as owner of the ticket (probably due to my status) after Silver refused to give them reason for a flight cancelation or really any information. In this situation, I had an 8 hour delay, and said to heck with this and rented a car.
The planes are nice enough, you can bring a full size carry-on (and a lot will actually fit in the ATR overhead bins), and on most of their routes other than maybe FLL-TLH it isn't much difference in time from a jet.
It's the people who are in the Bahamas or further south Caribbean islands who have the horror stories of Silver where they have a connection to UA or B6 and miss it by a day. Then they get stuck in South Florida or SJU on cruise day and have to pay $400 for a Hampton Inn (because even if Silver will admit the delay, they'll say that the "hotels at Silver's disposal" are sold out, meaning their rate or they've been cut off for not paying which I know of at least one that told me that's the case).
As a Floridian, I would beg to disagree. Getting from Tampa to anywhere else in the state except MIA, FLL, and EYW by air and nonstop is not possible. This is a big state with major cities that are far apart. I would love to be able to fly to JAX and TLH but no can do.
Ben,
Appreciate the credit for the source!
Employees for Silver at MCO told me that they were told Thursday night after the last operation that the RON was ferrying out (it went to TPA then later ferried to SJU where their schedule completion seems to be doing better than Florida) and that their employment and/or contract was over.
The two ATRs in FSD are flying to COE this morning. Coeur d'Alene is home to Empire Aerospace which performs (among other services) ATR pax to cargo conversions. So I'd assume these two birds are about to have their seats removed!
This is unfortunate. There’s certainly a market for intra-Florida air service. It worked for a while; Bummer they couldn’t figure out the formula long term.
Hi Ben, the flight history you posted seems to be that of N708SV.
@ AJO -- Thank you, my mistake!
I've never seen an airline, or other company for that matter, with consistently bad ratings or negative comments like they have. I was going to fly them once, until I saw the reviews.
Been a long time coming for this airline. The writing has been on the wall for a while now.