This shouldn’t surprise anyone, but it’s finally happening — Florida-based Silver Airways is ceasing operations as of today.
In this post:
Silver Airways cancels all flights going forward
Silver Airways is ceasing operations as of Wednesday, June 11, 2025, meaning the carrier’s fleet of eight ATR turboprops will no longer operate flights that have been scheduled. The company has posted the following travel advisory on its Instagram page:
We regret to inform you that we are ceasing operations as of today, June 11, 2025. In an attempt to restructure in bankruptcy, Silver entered into a transaction to sell its assets to another airline holding company, who unfortunately has determined to not continue Silver’s flight operations in Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean.
Please do not go to the airport. All credit card purchases should be refunded through your credit card company or your travel agency.
For context, at the very end of 2024, Silver Airways filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, claiming that operations would continue as usual, and that the airline would emerge stronger than ever before.
However, pretty quickly it became apparent that this wouldn’t be the case. In early March 2025, we saw some of the carrier’s planes start to be repossessed, causing the airline to erratically cancel flights. Since then, the company has been looking for a buyer, though given the amount of debt the airline is in, plus the limited prospects for profitability, that process hasn’t turned out to be very successful.
Silver Airways’ finances have been a mystery for years
Most airlines are publicly traded, and therefore there’s a fair bit of transparency when it comes to the financial situation they’re in. That hasn’t been the case at Silver Airways, which was owned by venture capital firm Versa Capital Management, since it was purchased in 2016.
So while we didn’t have a sense of the company’s finances, some things weren’t adding up. For example, even years before the company filed for bankruptcy protection, the airline was facing eviction from some of its biggest airports, over unpaid bills. To state the obvious, that’s not normal for a “healthy” airline.
In bankruptcy court, we recently learned just how bad the situation got — the value of Silver Airways’ property totaled just under $90 million, while the company had roughly $400 million in debt, including owing $8 million to various taxing authorities.
It’s difficult to sell a company in that kind of a financial state, especially with limited prospects for profitability. One certainly has to wonder what exactly management was thinking, or if they just wanted to save face and avoid bankruptcy for as long as possible, even with no long term chance of success.
Bottom line
Silver Airways is ceasing operations effective immediately, as of June 11, 2025. The company entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy several months back, promising to emerge stronger than ever before. That didn’t turn out to be the case, unsurprisingly, given just how deep of a hole the airline was in, with hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, and millions owed to taxing authorities.
It’s always sad to see an airline go out of business, and for people to lose their jobs. However, unfortunately this seemed to be inevitable. I’m curious what the future holds for these turboprops, since they’re not exactly popular in the United States anymore.
What do you make of Silver Airways ceasing operations?
Silver Airways was the rebranding of Gulfstream International (cert GUUA428B)
They always had mysterious revenue streams.
https://culturewars.com/news/the-demise-of-the-airline-pilot
Jetstar Asia in Singapore is ceasing operations on 31 July too. Another one bites the dust
Sad. Silver filled a nice little niche with intra Florida travel. Now it seems AA has retaken its monopoly on that.
At the very least though, it must have felt pretty special to be on the final Silver Airways flight yesterday.
I am somewhat sad to see them go. Flying out of Tampa, my partner and I had them on our bucket list to fly over to FLL or up to TLH. Alas, won't happen.
One has to ask how much deferred maintenance those ATR's are carrying.
As for Silver, they had some interesting niches in their service. One was JAX-PNS. Both home to major US Naval bases. People sometimes don t realize just how big Florida is. (It's a 6 hour drive by car)
Its not much different than Allegiants BLV-VPS route which ties two major USAF air bases.
The only downfall to the use of the ATR was...
One has to ask how much deferred maintenance those ATR's are carrying.
As for Silver, they had some interesting niches in their service. One was JAX-PNS. Both home to major US Naval bases. People sometimes don t realize just how big Florida is. (It's a 6 hour drive by car)
Its not much different than Allegiants BLV-VPS route which ties two major USAF air bases.
The only downfall to the use of the ATR was if there was least amount of inclement weather, Silver was always first to cancel.
Lucky's favorite airlines seem to have been Silver Airways and Air Belgium. Sorry Lucky.
Another airline’s future murdered by pilots unions. We really have to bust those unions to allow companies like this to be sold as a regional airline
The Pilots Union has nothing to do with a poorly managed airline. Airlines require ridiculous amounts of money to operate. I really want my pilots treated well by their companies.
Scott Kirby is that you again??
Lol what a terrible take. Those silver guys and girls made 64k a year average. I bet you make more than that. They had low cost labor and still messed it up.
I suspect none of Silver's employee's were unionized. And Florida is a
" right to work " state.
Ben, there’s another major airline shutdown today, but it’s not immediate. Singapore’s Jetstar Asia Airways (3K) will be closed on 31 July, as the Qantas group refuses to revive the only Singapore-based airline not owned by the SIA group.
In hindsight, 3K was suffering for a long time, and couldn’t expand beyond 13 A320ceos a decade old or more. The shift to Changi Terminal 4 effectively killed its core business of transit passengers from Terminal...
Ben, there’s another major airline shutdown today, but it’s not immediate. Singapore’s Jetstar Asia Airways (3K) will be closed on 31 July, as the Qantas group refuses to revive the only Singapore-based airline not owned by the SIA group.
In hindsight, 3K was suffering for a long time, and couldn’t expand beyond 13 A320ceos a decade old or more. The shift to Changi Terminal 4 effectively killed its core business of transit passengers from Terminal 1, and that was a death blow it couldn’t recover from. I always cheered for this little airline, so it’s sad to see it go, but it should fly into the sunset on a high.
Interestingly, the two airlines’ IATA codes were very similar: 3K for Jetstar Asia and 3M for Silver!
This VT-CIE is visualizing stuff again.
T1 transfers did not kill 3K. Almost no one transit that way.
What you should have picked up is how the authoritarian government forces out competition by sending their major competitors to the less desirable T4 while also making sure T4 will always be less desirable. Brainwashing people using lipstick on T4.
Sad, for Silver would have been a good regional feeder airline for JetBlue. Both had hubs at SJU and FLL with Silver taking care of the short hops to the neighboring islands where jet service doesn't make sense.
However, with that debt load, anyone would have been scared away. Also, the JetBlue pilots contract forbids a regional arm of the airline.
The gap maybe filled by another Cape Air like airline without the debtload Silver had encumbered. If the routes are profitable, another airline will serve them. Bahamas Air maybe the one.
I think another strike against Silver was the loss of the Amazon contract to carry packages with two ATR freighters. That would have been steady revenue as opposed to seasonal PAX loads.
If that's the case, glad it died. Now if B6 would follow it.
It's sad in the sense that they filled a major hole in the connectivity of several Bahamian and Caribbean destinations that are otherwise a pain to get to. It's not sad in the sense that they were horribly run and had non-existent customer service. Hopefully someone fills their place soon.
Sad.
I flew Silver several times intra-florida and to the Bahamas.
The ATR experience made the trips feel more tropical and exotic.
AA now gets to resume the “good ol days” of charging north of $500 RT for TLH-MIA nonstop itineraries.
Have said it before but this is a devastating event for intercaribbean connectivity.
And RIP Jetstar Asia...two airlines in one day
Porter needs something to replace the Qs at Toronto island.