Fort Lauderdale based Silver Airways will begin service to St Petersburg-Clearwater Airport in March. The airline will initially service St Petersburg from Fort Lauderdale and Key West. Also of interest to TFS readers, Silver will per our sources resume nonstop Fort Lauderdale-Tallahassee flights in time for legislative session.

This is a major announcement because Silver will become the first airline in over 20 years to fly routes from St Peterburg-Clearwater that it also flies from the much busier Tampa International Airport, which is almost directly across the bay.

Silver code-shares with United Airlines and was until recently a United Express carrier focusing on feeding UA’s operations in Fort Lauderdale and Tampa. Dropping the United Express label allowed Silver to expand operations in West Palm Beach and Orlando. The airline currently boasts the largest network of flights within the state of Florida.