Silver Airways (3M, Fort Lauderdale International) took delivery of its first five dedicated freighters, all ATR72-500(F)s, and began operations on behalf of Amazon.com on November 9, 2021.
The Floridian carrier, which has thus far focussed on regional passenger services in the United States and to the Bahamas, has added the following ATR - Avions de Transport Régional converted freighters:
- N919AZ (msn 853), a 12.7-year-old ex-Aurigny Air Services aircraft registered in the United States on July 8, 2021, owned by Amazon.com (and already sporting the logistic firm's Prime Air livery),
- N929AZ (msn 727), a 15.6-year-old ex-Air Corsica aircraft registered in the US on July 30, 2021, owned by ACIA Aero,
- N937AZ (msn 736), a 14.9-year-old ex-Air Caraibes aircraft registered in the US on September 7, 2021, also owned by ACIA,
- N947AZ (msn 682), an 18.6-year-old ex-MAP Linhas Aéreas aircraft registered in the US on October 22, 2021, owned by ATR Leasing, and
- N967AZ (msn 714), a 17-year-old ex-Mount Cook Airline aircraft registered in the US on October 8, 2021.
N919AZ operated the first revenue flight on November 9 from Fort Worth Alliance to Des Moines, while N929AZ departly soon after to Albuquerque International, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows. N967AZ is currently parked at Fort Worth Alliance airport and the other two units at Fort Lauderdale International.
The airline announced plans to expand into the ATR freighter market earlier this year, without disclosing variants at the time. It intends to base the aircraft out of Fort Worth Alliance, away from its hitherto main centre of operations in Florida.
The ch-aviation fleets module shows that Silver Airways also operates six ATR42-600s (with a further nine on order from Nordic Aviation Capital) and three ATR72-600s.
