THE SHOALS – It’s been the most poorly-kept secret in the Shoals business community. Silver Airways, the upstart air carrier that operates out of Muscle Shoals, is probably the most disappointing airline in the airport’s storied history. The Ft. Lauderdale based carrier announced on their website yesterday that they would cease providing air service in 90 days.
Silver airways arrives at Muscle Shoals Regional Airport to much fanfare on October 1, 2012
The Quad-Cities Daily contacted several persons connected with our community, and pretty much, the consensus pretty-much was, “Who cares? They have almost ruined air travel from the Shoals anyway.”
Rick Elliott, who is Chairman of the Northwest Alabama Regional Airport Board of Directors, suggested that Silver’s decision to leave is probably one of the best outcomes that the airport can have. He was quoted as saying that it’s “…probably a blessing in disguise.”
Silver Airways, a new startup, has had a deplorable record of performance. The airline’s on time percentage hovers around 50 per cent, and their flight cancellation rate is about 11 per cent – one of the poorest performance ratings in the nation.
Elliot suggested that with such a poor record, it was no wonder that Shoals business travelers didn’t book flights from Muscle Shoals Regional Airport.
When Silver Airways first came to the Shoals, the airport and Chamber of Commerce held a big welcome party. An insider who did not want to be identified suggested that perhaps a going away party should be thrown.
The Quad-Cities Daily attempted to get a statement from Airport Director Barry Griffith. He was unavailable.
Here is Silver Airways’ media release:
“Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (April 9, 2014) – As part of its plan to strengthen operations, increase revenue, reduce costs, and better position the airline for future growth and other opportunities, Silver Airways today announced plans to exit much of its Atlanta network and redeploy its aircraft and team members to other key markets.
Silver has provided the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) with the required 90-day notice of its intent to discontinue scheduled service between Atlanta and five communities, including Muscle Shoals, Alabama (MSL); Greenville, Mississippi (GLH); Laurel/Hattiesburg, Mississippi (PIB); Tupelo, Mississippi (TUP); and Meridian, Mississippi (MEI).
Silver does intend, however, to continue operations between Atlanta and Macon, Georgia (MCN), and between Macon and Orlando, Florida (MCO), as well as between Atlanta and Greenbrier/Lewisburg, West Virginia (LWB).
“The plans announced today are a necessary and important component of our strategy to continue rationalizing our fleet and network to better position ourselves for future growth and greater success by improving our operational performance and better serving customers and business partners in our core markets.”
“While we have been privileged to be able to serve these cities from Atlanta for the past year-and-a-half, multiple factors have combined to make it economically impossible for us to continue flying in these markets,” said Silver Airways President and CEO Dave Pflieger. “New federal regulations related to flight and duty limitations, as well as increased requirements related to new hire pilot certification, have had the unintended effect of creating a nationwide shortage of regional airline pilots. Those facts, coupled with significantly lower than expected passenger enplanements in most of our Atlanta-network cities have made it uneconomical for us to continue serving these communities.”
“While we have announced our plans to exit these particular markets, we remain interested in serving any community or airport where we can operate economically,” said Pflieger. “The plans announced today are a necessary and important component of our strategy to continue building a best-in-class next generation regional airline.”
The airline also confirmed that once operations at the affected communities are discontinued, all team members in good standing who wish to remain with Silver will be offered opportunities elsewhere. “We have open positions throughout the rest of our network, and we hope these team members choose to continue their careers with our award-winning airline,” added Pflieger.
About Silver Airways
Silver Airways Corp. (IATA: 3M) is a U.S. owned and operated airline operating approximately 170 daily scheduled flights to/from 38 destinations in Florida, the Bahamas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio. The airline, which offers more flights within Florida to the Bahamas than any other U.S. airline, has valued partnership and codeshare agreements with United Airlines and interline agreements with American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, US Airways, Bahamasair, Hahn Air, and All Nippon Airways.
Silver is a 2013 two-time award winner, having been recognized by its industry and the traveling public. In February 2013, it was named the recipient of Air Transport World’s (ATW) 2013 Regional Airline of the Year Award, the first U.S. airline to win regional aviation’s top honor since 2008. This award recognized Silver’s outstanding achievements, as well as the company’s contributions toward elevating the entire regional aviation industry overall. In October 2013, Silver was named one of the Top 10 “Best U.S. Airlines” in the prestigious Condé Nast Traveler’s 26th annual 2013 Readers’ Choice Awards.
The Silver fleet is comprised of 28 Saab 340B Plus aircraft (with a capacity of 34 passengers in a spacious, noise reduction equipped cabin), each powered by highly reliable, fuel-efficient GE jet-turbine propeller engines. The airline also operates a small number of Beechcraft 1900D aircraft (maximum seating capacity of 19 passengers) in the airline’s Cleveland network.
Silver Airways is privately owned by Victory Park Capital, a Chicago-based investment firm that launched the airline in May 2011.”
Northwest Shoals Airport has been undergoing a major renovation over the past year. Here are some photos:
