While its initial bankruptcy announcement in December 2024 came with reassurances that it would get back on financial track soon, Florida low-cost carrier Silver Airways struggled to find investors willing to take on its heavy debt load.
At the time it filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 30, Silver had amassed over $500 million in debts to aircraft lessors, airports, and jurisdictions in which the airports are based.
In the first half of the year, Silver lost its right to fly both into the Caribbean territory of Anguilla and Orlando International Airport (MCO) over unpaid airport fees.
On May 7, a New York hedge fund with a history of taking on troubled airlines made an acquisition offer of $5.8 million. The stalking horse bid was set in advance of a bankruptcy auction in what the bankrupt company hopes will set the stage for better offers.
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‘Competitive bidding and sale of assets may yield meaningful payment’
In a follow-up hearing on May 19, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Peter D. Russin approved the bankruptcy auction proposed by Silver, although, should a higher offer not come forward, a $6 million sale would not begin to cover the over $500 million owed to creditors.
“It is not lost on the Court that the Debtors borrowed collectively several hundred million dollars, yet the contemplated asset sale values total at present less than $10 million,” Russin wrote in his order.
“Yet the record also reflects something more: the informed and express support of nearly every major administrative claimant and the prospect, though far from guaranteed, that competitive bidding on Silver Airways assets and the sale of Seaborne’s assets may yield meaningful payment,” Russin said.
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The bankruptcy auction will open at 10 a.m. Eastern time on May 28, while a sale hearing will be held on June 4.
Should no other bidders come forward, New York investment firm Argentum Acquisition Co. will be able to purchase it for the stalking horse offer of $5.775 million.
Silver Airways launched in 2011 with the assets of the defunct Gulfstream International Airlines.
Image source: Shutterstock
How things went wrong
In April, Greenwich, Conn.-based lender KIA II gave Silver $5.5 million to continue daily operations. In the bankruptcy hearings, Silver also disclosed that a separate unidentified buyer had signed a letter of intent to acquire Silver for a lower offer of $4 million.
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Silver Airways launched in 2011 with the assets of the defunct Gulfstream International Airlines. In the 14 years that followed, it was able to carve out a market shuttling tourists to holiday destinations in Florida as well as Caribbean countries and territories like the Bahamas, Jamaica, St. Kitts and St. Thomas in the Caribbean.
At the start of 2025, Silver was still issuing statements about being able to restructure successfully by the second half of the year.
“To date, Silver’s restructuring has been going exceedingly well, but unfortunately, Dutch aircraft leasing company TrueNoord abruptly reversed its previously stated position and immediately required Silver to pay millions of dollars to retain the airplanes we have been flying for years,” an airline representative told TheStreet in March 2025 after the airline was forced to pull its Orlando service.
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