Kenya’s Silverstone Air Services set to rebrand

Silverstone Air Services (SLR, Nairobi Wilson) has announced plans to rebrand as Jetlite Air (Nairobi Wilson), just over a year after exiting scheduled passenger services following questions over the safety of its aircraft, according to Nairobi news reports. The Kenyan carrier in 2019 experienced a series of minor accidents, forcing it to suspend scheduled passenger services. In October 2019, one of its DHC-8-300s skidded off the runway at Nairobi Wilson, injuring two of the 50 passengers on board. In November the same year, another one of its Dash-8-300s made an emergency landing at Eldoret after one of its wheels came off. This prompted the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) on November 12, 2019, to temporarily suspend Silverstone’s Dash 8 turboprop fleet for inspection. When the suspension was lifted on November 19, the carrier itself halted all of its scheduled operations. As previously reported, in December 2019, Elix Aviation Capital repossessed Silverstone’s fleet of Dash 8 turboprops, which consisted of two DHC-8-100s and four DHC-8-300s. Some of Silverstone’s remaining fleet was chartered out to Somali domestic carriers Salaam Air Express, Som Express Airways, and Maandeeq Air. In September 2020, a Silverstone air cargo flight was reported to have crash-landed at Mogadishu airport. Silverstone Air Services started as a charter and contract air operator using a Cessna (single turboprop) CE208 to serve northern Kenya and South Sudan, primarily on behalf of NGOs. In 2017, the company rebranded as Silverstone Air, deploying two 50-seater Fokker 50s to serve Kisumu and Ukunda in October that year. The airline then expanded to the coastal destinations of Malindi and Lamu, adding two DHC-8-Q100s. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, Silverstone Air continues to have eleven aircraft, including one CRJ100ER(F) leased from Avmax Aircraft Leasing; seven F50s, of which three are wet-leased to Maandeeq Air; and three F50(F)s.