{"id":293894,"date":"2025-06-15T01:14:01","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T01:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/airline\/tragedy-in-india-silver-fades-away-cranky-flier\/"},"modified":"2025-06-15T01:14:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T01:14:01","slug":"tragedy-in-india-silver-fades-away-cranky-flier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=293894","title":{"rendered":"Tragedy in India, Silver Fades Away \u2013 Cranky Flier"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Air India Flight Crashes on Takeoff<\/h3>\n

Air India Flight 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner operating from Ahmedabad to London\/Gatwick, crashed shortly after takeoff Thursday<\/a>. The aircraft was briefly airborne, lost lift shortly after departure, and slammed into a hostel on the campus of B.J. Medical College. The plane was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. All but one person on board perished, making it the deadliest air disaster in India in decades and the first fatal crash involving a 787. The sole survivor, a British-Indian passenger seated near the front of the plane in seat 11A was reportedly ejected on impact and is now in stable condition.<\/p>\n

Those on-board included 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian. Rescue efforts were swift, but the intensity of the crash and fire left little hope.<\/p>\n

Investigators from India\u2019s AAIB, along with teams from the NTSB, FAA, and the UK are already on site. While the cause remains under investigation, the obvious question is why the airplane failed to climb. It\u2019s also noted that the landing gear never retracted. Reports are that the black boxes have been recovered, and they should provide the information needed to solve this mystery.<\/p>\n

For Air India, which has been attempting a high-profile modernization effort under the Tata Group, this is a moment of unspeakable loss that could cast a long shadow over the carrier for years to come.<\/p>\n

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Silver is Tarnished For Keeps<\/h3>\n

Well, Silver Airways has run out<\/a> of runway. After a prolonged Chapter 11 staycation that began last December, the regional carrier unceremoniously brought down the curtain this week.<\/p>\n

Despite efforts to find a buyer who could see a future in flying pink turboprops to Key West and the Bahamas, no serious bids came through during its bankruptcy auction. A Florida-based firm scooped up the remaining assets, but not the actual airline operations, which meant Silver shut everything down almost immediately, canceling flights and advising passengers not to head to the airport. But look at the bright side \u2014 if you\u2019re in the market for a pink-liveried ATR aircraft, it\u2019s a buyer\u2019s market.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t exactly a surprise ending. Silver had struggled for years with reliability issues, fleet challenges, and the general difficulty of running a niche regional operation in a tough market. Despite a recent codeshare with United and some route optimism, the pink writing had been on the wall for months, especially after operational meltdowns during peak travel weekends this spring. <\/p>\n

While it never reached household-name status, Silver filled important gaps for smaller communities and leisure travelers alike. Now, those gaps are likely to stay empty \u2014 at least until someone else decides the Bahamas might be worth the gamble \u2014 or they like the idea of airplanes that remind them of flamingoes.<\/p>\n

Look for more on this next week here on crankyflier.com.<\/p>\n

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Game Over for Play in the U.S.<\/h3>\n

PLAY Airlines is packing up its bright red jets and heading back across the Atlantic for good, calling it quits<\/a> on all U.S. routes by late October. New York\/Stewart? Gone by Labor Day. Boston? Last call mid-September. Baltimore? Final Icelandic exit on October 24. PLAY says it\u2019s \u201crestructuring,\u201d but let\u2019s be real: flying people from BWI to Iceland on $129 fares wasn\u2019t exactly minting krona.<\/p>\n

And in true startup airline fashion, the move comes just as the CEO leads a plan to take the company private and lease out half the fleet\u2014because when in doubt, become a European aircraft landlord. It turns out betting your U.S. strategy on three Northeast airports with winter weather and limited connecting traffic is less \u201cdisruptive\u201d and more \u201cdeeply seasonal with occasional blizzards.\u201d The good news? PLAY still wants to focus on \u201csun destinations,\u201d which sounds like a breakup text for the ages: \u201cIt\u2019s not you, America. It\u2019s the weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Breeze Goes International<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Breeze Airways received the go-ahead<\/a> from the DOT to spread its wings overseas \u2014 kind of like the kid who finally gets to go on an out-of-state school trip. Effective through June of 2027, this exemption allows the carrier to blow scheduled flights into any country with a U.S. open\u2011skies agreement, meaning the proposed flight between New Haven and Pyongyang will have to remain on ice.<\/p>\n

So yes, Breeze \u2014 the carrier that\u2019s flown domestic operations since 2021 is now clearing customs, signing up for Global Entry, and dreaming bigger. The airline is expected to take on tropical getaways before tackling puffin-watching in Iceland or pub-hopping in Ireland. But assuming its leisure flights to Nice destinations across the Caribbean go so well, that maybe one day we can experience Breeze\u2019s \u201cSeriously Nice\u201d service across the Atlantic to Nice.<\/p>\n

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Boeing Resumes Chinese Takeout<\/del> Deliveries<\/h3>\n

Stop the presses and fire up the MAXs, Boeing is back in business<\/a> with China \u2014 for now. After a two-month \u201cwill they, won\u2019t they\u201d phase that felt more like a bad rom-com than a trade negotiation, Boeing sent its first 737 MAX delivery across the Pacific, where it touched down in Zhoushan on June 9 wearing Xiamen Airlines colors and probably bringing a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n

The delivery follows a 90-day tariff truce where both the U.S. and China agreed to temporarily chill out\u2014dropping tariffs to something just shy of absurd. For Boeing, which has been sitting on a bunch of undelivered jets like the federal government hoards perimeter exemptions at DCA, this is very good news.<\/p>\n

Of course, one plane does not a recovery make, but Boeing\u2019s betting big that this signals a thaw in relations and maybe even a return to normalcy\u2014whatever that means these days. CEO Kelly Ortberg says up to 50 aircraft could be delivered to Chinese airlines this year, which would be great, assuming no one sneezes and causes another geopolitical setback. The market responded with polite applause and a little stock bump, but the real win here is symbolic: Boeing\u2019s most crucial international customer is opening the door again, even if it\u2019s just cracked for now. Enjoy the 90-day honeymoon while it lasts.<\/p>\n

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