Silver Airways and Frontier Airlines Are Giving Up on Cuba After Eight Months
Photo Credit: Silver Airways had hoped to make big profits in Cuba, but it did not work out. Silver Airways
Skift Take
Most big U.S. airlines see Cuba as a long-term play, so they're willing to fly empty planes and lose money in the short term. But not Silver Airways and Frontier Airlines. They decided that several months of losses is enough.
At the end of 2015, Silver Airways — a south Florida airline with a small turboprop fleet — settled on a new strategy. It would capitalize on "tremendous opportunities" in Cuba and start as many new routes as the United States government allowed.
But less than eight months after its first flight from Fort Lauderdale to Santa Clara, Silver Airways is calling off its Cuba strategy. It will suspend Cuba flying on April 22, and focus on routes within Florida and from Florida to the Bahamas.
Silver Airways has rights to more Cuba routes than any other U.S. airline. Last year, the U.S. Department of Transportation gave it authority to serve nine cities, all from Fort Lauderdale, including Camagüey, Cayo Coco, Holguin, and Cienfuegos. It did not, however, win the rights to fly to Havana, with all those frequencies going
