Passengers board a Seaborne Airlines aircraft in May 2025 at the Luis Munoz Marin International Airport. Photo Credit: V.I. CONSORTIUM.
Former employees of Silver Airways, which abruptly ceased operations earlier this month after running out of operational cash, are now appealing to the courts, saying they have been stiffed out of wages and other compensation owed to them prior to the airline's collapse on June 11.
Several employees have filed administrative claims in the Silver bankruptcy case, claiming that they have not received final paychecks, payments for accrued leave, or severance. They accuse the airline's senior management of “questionable practices” and are asking for an investigation into Silver's fiscal practices prior to its closure.
Starting on June 13, two days after Silver's sudden closure, letters began coming to Judge Peter Russin describing the abrupt nature by which the former staffers learned of the loss of their jobs. “We were not given any warning or official communication in advance,” wrote Irving Peña, who was employed as a ramp agent at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. “I learned about the shutdown through a midnight email.” Mr. Peña says he is owed for the last two weeks of work before the airline's closure.
"Silver Airways has not provided any updates or issued our final pay since June 11," Mr. Peña wrote in his letter, requesting that Judge Russin investigate the matter. According to court records, at least six other former employees have made similar requests.
Several former staffers have placed blame for the airline's demise squarely on the shoulders of senior management. According to Jenny Ramirez, a former flight attendant based in Florida, Silver was operating successfully “until the latest CEO and CFO joined the company.” Ms. Ramirez, who says she worked with Silver for over 12 years, told Judge Russin that “the operational leadership became subpar and was spiraling downward with no intervention or leadership from Mr. Steve Rossum.”
Ms. Ramirez pointed to the failure of the airline's self-insurance system to pay claims, a “consistently incorrect” payroll, and persistent “questions of financial mismanagement” at the senior executive level as evidence of her assertion of incompetent leadership.
She says that the mismanagement of the airline did not come to light during the bankruptcy process, and suggested an element of deceit. Judge Russin alluded to something similar during his hearing considering Silver's asset sale. “I don't feel like the debtor provided the full story,” he said during the June 11 hearing.
Noting that former employees have received less than half of their contracted salary for May “with no guarantee of being made whole,” Ms. Ramirez says the fiscal responsibility of the senior executive team must be questioned. “We…encourage you [to] turn this concern over to the State Attorney's office for a full fiscal forensic investigation,” she told Judge Russin, noting that the Florida State Attorney's office had already been alerted to the matter.
“Silver Management is getting away with so much,” wrote another former flight attendant, Maria Salinas, who spent 13 years working for the airline. “We worked so hard May and June.”
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