In a matter of days, Silver Airways could be evicted from its biggest hub…
In this post:
Silver Airways hasn’t been paying rent in Fort Lauderdale
Silver Airways is a regional airline based in Florida, which operates a fleet of ATR turboprops. The airline operates a variety of routes in the Southeast, with a particular focus on flights within Florida, as well as flights between Florida and the Caribbean. I reviewed the airline a while back on a flight between Tampa and Fort Lauderdale.
On April 18, 2023, the Broward County Commission will be meeting to vote on whether to terminate Silver Airways’ lease agreement at Fort Lauderdale Airport (FLL). Not only is Silver Airways headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, but it’s also the carrier’s biggest hub.
Why is the county considering kicking the airline out of the airport? Silver Airways hasn’t been paying its bills at the airport, and now owes the county around a million dollars:
- On January 3, 2022, the county’s director of aviation issued the first notice of default to Silver Airways’ controller, stating that Silver Airways owed the county $1,044,426.04
- The order was rescinded the next day, after Silver Airways’ controller disputed the amount owed
- The parties agreed that Silver Airways would pay the county $546,305.46 by January 11, 2022, with plans to “reach a mutually acceptable repayment plan on the remaining balances due”
- That payment never ended up happening, and on August 24, 2022, another notice of default was issued, stating that Silver Airways owed the county $790,799
- On December 15, 2022, another notice of default was issued, stating that Silver Airways owed the county $957,750.17, after the county applied Silver Airways’ security deposit as credit toward the balance due
- The county essentially claims to have been ghosted by Silver Airways, as the controller had advised that Silver Airways would submit a proposal in a matter of days, but “that did not occur until much later”
- At this point Silver Airways owes the county $958,000 in fees and charges, after taking the $113,634 security deposit, and also wants Silver Airways to replenish its security deposit with $407,000
In a statement, Silver Airways’ CEO had the following to say regarding the situation:
“It is our desire and expectation to reach a negotiated resolution expeditiously with the county that is fair to Silver and its employees and fair to the taxpayers of Broward County.”
This sounds… pretty bad?
Admittedly the pandemic was a challenging time for airlines, and without government support, many US carriers probably wouldn’t have survived. However, simply not making lease payments at your biggest hub for an extended period of time seems like a drastic action.
Based on all the documents provided by Broward County, it’s pretty clear that the airline had ample notice about the situation it was in, and simply decided to ignore these requests.
Silver Airways isn’t publicly traded (it’s owned by a private equity firm), so we don’t really have a sense of what the carrier’s financial situation is like. However, an airline potentially being evicted for these kinds of reasons doesn’t give me much faith…
Bottom line
Silver Airways could be evicted from Fort Lauderdale Airport, as the airline hasn’t been making its lease payments. The airline owes the county around a million dollars, plus it needs to replenish its security deposit. This dispute has been going on for well over a year, so that’s not a great sign when it comes to Silver Airways’ financial situation.
I’m curious to see how the county votes on evicting the airline…
What do you make of this Silver Airways situation?
Don’t fly with them, our flight got cancelled for no reason. We tried to call them but they didn’t answer. Lost a lot of money.
Has anyone taken the Silver Air flight from Exuma to FLL? Booked and would like to know what peoples experiences are of this particular route? Thanks in advance, appreciate the words of advice!
Recently I flew Silver Air out of Marsh Harbor Bahamas. They arrived 1/2 hour late, ran their turbo engines for 45 min.. They allowed us to board the plane while running the engines at full throttle where we sat for another 1/2 hour. They then had us deplane while they refueled, 45min.. Arrived in Ft. Lauderdale 3 and a half hours late. Missed my connecting flyt. My next available flyt two days away. They made...
Recently I flew Silver Air out of Marsh Harbor Bahamas. They arrived 1/2 hour late, ran their turbo engines for 45 min.. They allowed us to board the plane while running the engines at full throttle where we sat for another 1/2 hour. They then had us deplane while they refueled, 45min.. Arrived in Ft. Lauderdale 3 and a half hours late. Missed my connecting flyt. My next available flyt two days away. They made no attempt to make things right so I stood in front of the counter till security show up. They gave me a $100 voucher to cover some of the lodging. No one honors their vouchers. There's salt in the wound! F#%kers!!
Start charging them, in advance, to talk to air traffic control.
Or start seizing planes.
It’s hard to reach customer service. They cancelled my flights. I called for refund they said flight was still on time. There were no flights leaving the airport. I emailed customer service and still no response. I want my refund. Thank you.
Just flew them last month FLL-BIM, no complaints, but when people say you can't get hold of their customer service, they mean it—the only method is an email address that *might* get answered. Another couple on the flight had their luggage lost and no updates for 3 days. You'd better be able to go back to the airport to talk to someone, IF they have a flight that day.
Sucks because my child flys in from Tallahassee in which not many flights do go there .
I am a Former Silver Flight Attendant, it took me just one month to decide to leave the company.
Aircraft’s are constantly broken , and sometimes feels unsafe to fly with low cabin pressurization, and many times neither the A/C works properly and was really hot for passengers and for us. They don’t pay to clean the Aircraft,neither outside or inside and most of them look gross .I think Silver should be out of...
I am a Former Silver Flight Attendant, it took me just one month to decide to leave the company.
Aircraft’s are constantly broken , and sometimes feels unsafe to fly with low cabin pressurization, and many times neither the A/C works properly and was really hot for passengers and for us. They don’t pay to clean the Aircraft,neither outside or inside and most of them look gross .I think Silver should be out of Bussiness until they can offer safety and comfort to passengers and to its own crew.
Similar thing happened when they flew out of Bar Harbor as well
https://www.wabi.tv/2021/01/19/hancock-county-bar-harbor-airport-looks-to-collect-debt-from-silver-airways/?outputType=amp
Silver is the absolute worst. They are run by criminals aided by the state of Florida since they serve Tallahassee, which no real airline wants to. Every few years, someone like Delta will offer service from SoFla, only to drop it when the state incentives run out.
My family had a flight on them a few years ago to get from Palm Beach to Tampa to connect with a LH flight to Germany, all on...
Silver is the absolute worst. They are run by criminals aided by the state of Florida since they serve Tallahassee, which no real airline wants to. Every few years, someone like Delta will offer service from SoFla, only to drop it when the state incentives run out.
My family had a flight on them a few years ago to get from Palm Beach to Tampa to connect with a LH flight to Germany, all on a United ticket. Flight kept getting pushed back and then canceled. Staff simply left the airport. No one to call. No one to help. One UAL employee was there and tried to help. Family wound up renting a car, driving to Orlando for the night and then flying out of Tampa a day late.
Trying to get any compensation was fruitless and a nightmare and the CEO (or someone just below him) actually accused my elderly mother and brother of extortion and threatened them with law enforcement in the only email that was responded to (if I recall correctly as the situation went thru many steps and levels of absurdity).
Bottom line: do NOT ever fly them. No matter what. And I truly hope they go out of business ASAP.
Unfortunately, just don't trust an airline based in South Florida. They're scummy vultures—like most of South Florida.
The Elon Musk School of Management.
Not sure what your problem is with Mr. Musk. He has made Tesla shareholders very wealthy and is responsible for the shift in electrification of transportation. He overpaid for Twitter, but that was his cash to do with what he wanted. Last I checked, Twitter is current with its lease obligations unlike Silver.
You clearly have never actually looked.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/03/tech/twitter-landlord-lawsuit/index.html
Evict the flood first?
Gone from PBI, too.
Flew them between FLL and Key West. Flight was fine, aside from the unusual seating.
Anyone know: If I booked through United's website for a Silver flight from FLL to the Caribbean in June 2023, who do I contact for any issues? I really wish I could just cancel. I've been watching that flight every week for the past few months and it 's almost always delayed or canceled. I have a connecting flight back home and I'm afraid my group of 10 will miss it. :-(
All I can tell you is, good luck and it is what it is... Even if you had booked directly through Silver, you wouldn't be able to reach them. I tried via email and phone - no luck other than a totally useless callback. When we were in the Bahamas and the locals asked which airline we used, every time I mentioned Silver it got the same reaction - laughter/good luck/keep an eye on the...
All I can tell you is, good luck and it is what it is... Even if you had booked directly through Silver, you wouldn't be able to reach them. I tried via email and phone - no luck other than a totally useless callback. When we were in the Bahamas and the locals asked which airline we used, every time I mentioned Silver it got the same reaction - laughter/good luck/keep an eye on the schedule. Sure enough, 5 days out Silver pushed our return about 2.5 hours, then it ended up being delayed a further hour on top of that and we misconnected. Nothing we could do but roll with it and I handled rebooking the connection myself.
UGH! That sounds horrible. Thanks so much for the support and well wishes! We need them!
Is your destination somewhere United flies with their own metal? If so, I would suggest rebooking on United metal (this might mean a connection at an airport other than FLL).
Headed to GGT. That's a great idea....I'll have to look into that for sure! I'm so nervous because we leave and come back on Tuesdays and some people have to work the Wednesday after the trip. Thanks SO much for the advice!
You would deal with the airline that issued your ticket, which would be UA. But UA, or any other airline is only going to let you make changes based on the rules of the fare unless there's some actual irregularity.
Hey Jen, how did the Silver flight from GGT - FLL flight end up going, flying out and flying in? We are booked for that same flight in July and getting nervous!
“It is our desire and expectation to reach a negotiated resolution expeditiously with the county that is fair to Silver and its employees and fair to the taxpayers of Broward County.”
Seems like the CEO must think fair to Silver is different than meeting the terms of the lease agreement...
Oh they're gonna pull the "You don't want to throw all those Broward County residents out of a job....do you?"
It's the airline industry....they could all be hired by Jetblue or Spirit the next day. Literally.
Goodbye Sliver.
I flew once with them to Bahamas. Scary. Witnessed a fight between ground crew and flight crew. Ground crew said plane was safe, air crew refused to take off. 5 hrs and 3 planes before we got off the ground.
Summer of 21, they got to Marsh Harbour twice and could not deploy landing gear. Rather fly a 30yo Aztec Airlines Piper than them.
This does not bode well…
And speaking of FLL, no post about the insane flooding? Ppl were trapped at the airport for 8-12 hours late Wednesday and it’s still shutdown as of this morning
Would not surprise me. Saw this yesterday and couldn't help but laugh because I just flew them for the first time last week, r/t between FLL - ELH. Going to Bahamas was fine and easy enough, minus a 1-hour delay. The return was something else... I always take people saying "so and so airline has the WORST customer service..." Since it always varies. However, I can safely say I've never experienced customer service from an...
Would not surprise me. Saw this yesterday and couldn't help but laugh because I just flew them for the first time last week, r/t between FLL - ELH. Going to Bahamas was fine and easy enough, minus a 1-hour delay. The return was something else... I always take people saying "so and so airline has the WORST customer service..." Since it always varies. However, I can safely say I've never experienced customer service from an airline as poor as Silver Airways, and the vast majority of comments I've read seem to agree. You absolutely cannot reach them if something goes wrong. I did finally get a call back about 5 hours later after giving up and hopping in the queue. It came from Ghana, and the guy could not have been more indifferent or useless, and could not answer the simplest of questions. This, along with how Silver handled our schedule change, told me everything I need to know about the company and how it's run.
I know Ben had a good experience with Silver, and it seems like they're a bit more reliable on domestic routes, but never again (especially for international).