The federal bankruptcy judge finally approved the sale of Silver Airways, which halted the operation in early June.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Peter Rassin entered the signing order Thursday after conducting emergency hearings from attorneys, affiliates at Wexford Capital in West Palm Beach and Greenwich, Connecticut. Qualified rival bids.
Originally, the silver management was to operate the airline, but the buyers secured approval from the Federal Aviation Administration regulator. However, the company retreated from the operational portion of the transaction after learning that Silver had lost $1 million in revenue in late May due to the brief airline closure. The problem was that the battery kit could not be updated on the fleet of silver turboprop planes.
The airline was permanently suspended on June 11 after Argentum refused to fund its continued operations, citing a loss of $1 million.
After more than a week of exchanges between lawyers, the judge signed the contract on Thursday
Under the revised transaction, Argentum has acquired most of the airline’s assets free and clearly. But he also relies on paying over $9,400 in back taxes to the Broward County tax collector, as well as paying 8 wind-blowed employees. According to the contract.
The airline, which once provided multiple Florida cities and locations in the Bahamas and Caribbean, once employed more than 800 people.
The agreement concludes the saga of Silver’s efforts to restructure under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which failed after months of attempts. Silver was applied for protection from creditors on December 30, 2024.
Seabourne Airlines’ Silver affiliate, who applied for Chapter 11, received a $200,000 bid for a stalker horse from an Orlando-based airline called Narra Airlines. The June 24th hearing is set to discuss bidding procedures.
Earlier this month, the association of flight attendants and CWA argued that buyers should cover payments to the union’s flight attendants and pilots that made the payments just before the airline closes. AFA-CWA president Sarah Nelson said the union opposed the revised acquisition agreement. She said the issue should be heard before Rasin and that buyers should be forced to respect the union’s labor contract.
“Our union is opposed to the revised agreement as Wexford is trying to overturn the collective bargaining agreement,” she argued. “Based on submission, Wexford appears to be trying to establish another entity to make the same flight currently covered under our contract.”
She said attendants were to be paid in full on June 13, but “However, only 45% of what they had due were paid. Silver flight attendants were paying wages, postponement costs, holidays, sick leave and medical expenses.
The court received several letters from staff and other employees demanding court assistance and protesting the loss of pay.
“To date, we have not received full May payments and are not offered retirement payments,” loose flight attendant Rogerio Benabe wrote in a letter on June 13th. “In addition, we are unable to apply for unemployment benefits because we have not received official notices of layoffs or layoffs from the company.”
“The commitment to prioritizing employee welfare throughout this process is unaware and deeply appreciated,” Benabe told the judge.
The union did not respond to a request for comment Friday on what it intends to do now that the silver sales order has been approved by the court.
Silver’s lead lawyer, Brian Hall, did not respond to email requests for comment.
Wexford did not issue a statement Thursday after receiving approval for the sales order. On Friday, the company did not respond to requests for comment via email regarding future operations that it may be thinking.
Original issue: June 21, 2025 8:11am EDT
