Silver Airways abruptly shuts down, tells passengers not to go to airport

Silver Airways abruptly scuttled all of the Florida regional carrier's flights and told passengers booked on flights scheduled to depart Wednesday not to go to the airport.

The bankrupt carrier said in an Instagram post that it would no longer serve customers as of June 11. Silver Airways also said it struck an agreement to sell it assets to a buyer that decided not to continue the carrier's flight operations, part of an effort to restructure the company's debt.

The Hollywood/Fort Lauderdale-based airline, which launched in 2011 and which has hubs in Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and Orlando, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, saying the move would allow it to raise money and remain competitive.

Silver Airways canceled 52 flights Wednesday, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.

Industry analysts said they weren't surprised the airline had shut down.

"It was more a matter of when, rather than if, Silver would shut down," Atmosphere Research Group airline industry analyst Henry Harteveldt told CBS News.

Silver served more than a dozen destinations across Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean. It also owned a subsidiary airline, Seaborne, that operated seaplanes flying to the islands of St. Croix and St. Thomas.

In its social media post, Silver said it would refund customers' purchases through either their credit card companies or the travel agency through which they booked flights.

Kathryn Krupnik and Kris Van Cleave contributed to this report.