Silver Airways Cancels Flights, Planes Stop Flying: Is The End Near?

Been a long time coming for this airline. The writing has been on the wall for a while now.

Hi Ben, the flight history you posted seems to be that of N708SV.

@ AJO -- Thank you, my mistake!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

I'm guessing that the Bright Line trains coming online for intra-Florida connections, didn't do Silver any favors.

It was refreshing to see some competition with AA for intra-FL service, as AA seems to have a stranglehold in the intra-FL market, especially in South Florida. And their inflated prices definitely reflect that. I mean, $1,000 for a family of 4 to go from TPA-MIA? Come on now. And with Silver hanging on by a thread, I'm sure those prices will only get worse.

Silver confirmed in a statement... at least 3 "flyable" ATRs were repossessed by leasing coming TrueNoord.

My grandson just left Key west airport he has CP and walks with crutches I ask I he incompetent man at the counter that he needed wheelchair assistance 3 freaking times he was an arrogant bastard that knew everything.
My grandson is now stranded at Fort Lauderdale airport without a wheelchair he had to the next terminal. He finally got a wheelchair without an attendant when he went to the bathroom the wheelchair was gone. If anything happens to him because of this shitty airline I’m holding them responsible. I don’t give a shit if they claimed bankruptcy I’m going to the media and letting everyone about these jerks especially the jerk at the airline counter.

This is the worse airlines ever. I just got back from Bogota to Fort Lauderale and my flight was changed from 330pm to 12am. I know how this was going to end. I would have been at the airport for 10 hours and they still cancel my flight to Tampa. I just rented a car and drove but it sucks for so many people who couldn't do that. My own fault for reading reading on this airline because my mentality was what could go wrong with a 1 hour flight

Empire Airlines is based there. They fly cargo ATRs for FedEx. Maybe buying up some used bargins

They just laid off people in maintenance Friday 7 March

In 7 short years, Silver managed to utterly destroy Seaborne Airlines, an acquisition they made to expand to the Caribbean. The management is as clueless as they are toxic. The attrition rate is inordinately high as they fire those who stand up to the atrocious CEO and the employees left holding the bag eventually ditch for better opportunities. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

In February, my husband and I were to fly to Jamaica via Silver/JetBlue with a connection in Ft. Lauderdale. We arrived at the airport 3 hrs. early as req'd for Int'l flights. Flight was delayed 3 times resulting in missed connection. We had to stay in Ft. Lauderdale overnight + dinner/breakfast and car rental. We were instructed to turn in our receipts for reimbursement. Right! I sent them copies of everything and to date... no response. Never again!