Silver Air stops operations

"Effective August 2, 2009, Silver Air is suspending its current operations due to a complete re-organisation of the company," said Tim Lee, Commercial Director of the private charter company, reported Emirates Business.

In a sudden move the company has asked all its employees to surrender company property such as full uniform, company ID, mobile phones and airport passes and so on, according to a source.

In an leaked e-mail to all Silver Air employees, Lee said: "Following meetings with our chairman and his advisors, the decision has been taken to suspend our AOC [in consultation with the GCAA] to allow us to undertake a comprehensive restructuring of the company. This process is expected to take at least three months, and during that time, and until the AOC is taken out of suspension, Silver Air will not be carrying out any flying activity.

"Over the next few days, I will be writing again to everyone to explain in detail what this means to us all as employees. I think it only fair to warn you at this stage that this process will involve significant job losses."

Asked if Silver Air's AOC would eventually be cancelled, Lee said: "We have not cancelled our AOC and intend to resume full operations with a new service offering, which is currently under development."

"All of our contracts and commitments to clients for our services have been fulfilled or agreed to their satisfaction and we look forward to the re-launch of an even better operation in the very near future," he added.

The ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance) or wet lease company, which operated a fleet of two Boeing 737-200 aircraft and two 737-300 aircraft, had plans of expanding fleet to a total of 10 aircraft by the beginning of 2010.

The company, promoted by Dr Hamand Al Shamiz, Sheahab Gargash and Daman Investments, had earlier this year received a fund infusion of $4 million (Dh15m) to finance company operations and aircraft acquisition.

It also had plans for funding its future aircraft acquisitions by an initial public offering (IPO) in two to three years time with a listing in Dubai, a senior Silver Air executive, said in February.

Launched in 2004, Silver Air aimed to work with airlines and operators throughout the Middle East.