On Wednesday, the company that a year ago purchased Seaborne Airlines announced a codeshare partnership with Delta Airlines, allowing customers of both airlines to purchase one ticket, with baggage transfer, that includes segments operated by either airline, without booking a separate ticket for each carrier.
For more than a year, Seaborne Airlines has been morphing into Silver Airways, the Florida-based airline that purchased the San Juan-based Seaborne in April 2018, continuing decades of seaplane service between the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and the mainland.
Under Wednesday’s agreement, Delta passengers will be able to travel on Silver Airways to and from San Juan, Anguilla, Antigua, Dominica, Tortola, Nevis, St. Kitts, St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. Maarten. Prior to the sale, those routes where flown by Seaborne Airlines and now are operated by Silver. At the same time, Silver passengers have access to Delta’s itineraries.
There are also codeshares between Silver and United, JetBlue and Avianca.
“We are thrilled to welcome Delta Air Lines to Silver Airway’s codeshare family and are pleased to provide Delta’s customers with Silver’s sale, reliable and customer-friendly service and expanded reach throughout our extensive Caribbean network,” said Steve Rossum, chief executive officer of Silver Airways.
Silver Airway was the first commercial airline founded in Florida and is still operating today. The carrier is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale with hubs also in Tampa and Orlando. The Caribbean network is operated from a hub in San Juan. Currently, there are direct flights between St. Croix and San Juan and between St. Croix and St. Thomas.
Silver Airway is owned by affiliates of Philadelphia-based investment firm Versa Capital Management, LLC. Historically it has operated a fleet of Saab 340 aircraft and expanded the fleet in 2018 with 50 ATR 600s.
Seaborne began service to St. Croix in 1992 and branched out into the region. It moved headquarters in 2009 to San Juan and has operated throughout the Caribbean ever since.