TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Silver Airlines possible entry into the Caribbean

Silver Airlines announced LOI to acquire ATR-600 fleet. Possible impact to SJU.

"Silver said it has entered into negotiations with San Juan, Puerto Rico-based Seaborne Airlines to explore commercial cooperation and a potential “combination.” Seaborne provides connections throughout the Caribbean via its San Juan hub;"

Details on various websites including:
http://m.atwonline.com/aircraft-orders-d...ries-turboprops

Much better chance of this than BVI Air!

~42-70 seat aircraft makes great sense. Brand new planes, Newer more powerful version than the old ATRs that AA used from their old hub in SJU. Would be perfect SJU-EIS-SJU options 3x per day. Code share and interline partners add value.

Might this help travelling from Canada.

They fly out of Tampa too! Bonus! Hopefully they'll price the flights reasonably...it always throws me when I see the pricing on the SJU-EIS-SJU legs -- sometimes more expensive than the fly from Tampa to SJU!

Silver Airlines used to be Gulfstream international airline. They have had a checkered history and have tried to reinvent themselves several times. Not sure how this will turn out but at the moment they can't even staff their current fleet with pilots.
G

We flew Silver three years ago Jax - Marsh Harbour r/t for an Abaco sail charter. They were fine.

We normally use Air Sunshine SJU-EIS, never had a problem. But would sure prefer turboprop ATRs than 9 place Cessnas! Probably at least a year away, but as I said, better chance than BVI air.

We flew FLL to Treasure Cay a few years back and considered Silver, but ultimately went private air in no small part because of the checkered reputation George mentioned.

That said, competition is always a good thing.

Each time a plane goes up and down there are very real costs. The list is very long starting with taxes and fees, then fuel to climb , then the time cost of the labor and the depreciating hull. Direct flights are the only possible path to sustainable lower cost fares and sustainable lower total cost of transportation. The ATR's are expensive to operate per passenger mile on top of that. The cost to operate ATR's and short hop flights in general are the primary reason the professionally run and managed major airlines have dumped them. At the end of the day if you cannot get the costs below 9 cents per passenger mile you will fail in the airline industry. The exception would be a route where you have a near monopoly and passengers who are not concerned with costs.

The distance between SJU and EIS is +/-95 miles the competitive major carrier runs on revenue of +/- 12 cents per seat mile or $10 to $15 per passenger to fly that distance. The future of the BVI hospitality market is dependent on cutting out SJU and STT. Both add hours each way, risk each way, and costs above $100 each way. Sometimes the costs are much more in time lost and money.

I looked it up. The ATR 72-600 needs per leg fares of $75-120 to break even on just the airtime costs before paying the fees that a SJU would add plus the cost to capitalize and depreciate the $19 Million hull. No one is going to buy new aircraft at $19 Million each hoping to get rich selling $100 airline tickets.

Storm...
Name any airline that "buy new aircraft"
SJU-EIS avg = $350, not $200

Silver's business model is short O&D with code share partners.

I'm not writing their business plan, just interested in the possibility, that this has a far greater chance of success than non-stop service to/from EIS from mainland U.S. on two old 4 engine jets (with terrible time slots!). MHO