Silver Airways will partner with the Gainesville Regional Airport to offer a nonstop flight to Ft. Lauderdale starting Aug. 21.
Silver Airways, a regional carrier headquartered in Ft. Lauderdale, offers multiple flights from their hub, including seven different locations within the Bahamas and a Key West route.
Erin Porter, the airport’s public relations manager, said conversations on the flight started in 2018 before fading, but talks restarted and the new flight and new carrier have joined the airport.
“This has been a route that has been requested for a long time, from our students, from UF and, I think, from people in general,” Porter said in an interview.
The Gainesville Regional Airport now has three airlines—American, Delta and Silver. Porter said airports live for new flight options for passengers.
Silver Airways will operate a turboprop plane, the ATR 72, on the hour and a half flight.
According to the Silver Airways website, customers can choose the route almost every day. In September, the first complete month of operation, only two days lack a flight.
Currently, most flights are listed as $49 one way. Porter called it an awesome introductory price and said response from an airport survey was “overwhelmingly positive.”
How are they partnering to offer more flights when their current fleet can’t support their current customers. Read their reviews on TripAdvisor. We went to N.O. last month and our flight going and coming were both canceled with absolutely no communication or warning and it wasn’t due to weather. We were left to figure it out on our own.