Era Aviation

Era Aviation was established and initiated operations in 1948 when Carl Brady flew the first commercial helicopter to Alaska for contract work supporting a mapping project for the U.S. government. Fixed-wing aircraft were then acquired by the company in addition to helicopters with rotorcraft being operated in Alaska, California and Louisiana by the Era Helicopters division.[3] In 1967, Houston based Rowan Companies, purchased the company from the founder.[4] Scheduled fixed-wing passenger services began in May 1983. During the summer of 1984, Era was operating scheduled services between Anchorage and Bethel, Kenai and Valdez.[5] The airline formerly operated Convair 580 turboprops as well as de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter and DHC-7 Dash 7 aircraft and then added DHC-8 Dash 8 turboprops. Most of the airline's scheduled passenger flights were code share feeder services for Alaska Airlines. Era used the two-letter "AS" airline code for its flight numbers on these services for Alaska Airlines. Beechcraft 1900C and Beechcraft 1900D turboprops were subsequently added to the fleet.

In late 2004, Rowan Companies sold Era Aviation (also containing Era Helicopters, now (2021) apart of Bristow Group after a merger in 2020 with the SEACOR spun it out public company created in 2013, formerly known as Era Group), having owned both Era Aviation and Era Helicopters since 1967, to SEACOR. 6 months later SEACOR sold Era Aviation, but retained Era Helicopters. Later on that same year the new owners of Era Aviation filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Effective February 27, 2009, Era Aviation, Inc. was bought out and became a subsidiary of The Frontier Alaska Group along with Frontier Flying Service and Hageland Aviation. The combination of the three air carriers resulted in the largest Alaska-based airline in terms of serving more destinations and passengers operated with the largest airplane fleet in the state. The three airlines then operated under the marketing name of Era Alaska/Frontier Alaska (Hagland Aviation and Frontier Flying Services) which has since changed the marketing name of all the airlines to Ravn Alaska/Ravn Connect brands.[6]

Era Aviation operated scheduled passenger services to the following destinations in Alaska and Canada at various times over the years prior to the merger which created Era Alaska.[7][8]

Most flights were operated from its hub located at the Ted Stevens International Airport (ANC) in Anchorage:

• Aniak, Alaska
• Barrow, Alaska (via an intermediate stop in Fairbanks)
• Bethel, Alaska
• Cordova, Alaska
• Deadhorse, Alaska (Prudhoe Bay, Alaska)
• Fairbanks, Alaska
• Galena, Alaska
• Homer, Alaska
• Iliamna, Alaska
• Kenai, Alaska
• Kodiak, Alaska
• St. Mary's, Alaska
• Unalakleet, Alaska
• Valdez, Alaska
• Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada - only international route flown by Era

In addition, Ravn Alaska offers scheduled service to more than 100 communities statewide.

Era Aviation De Havilland Canada DHC-8-103

The Corvus fleet includes the following aircraft (upon merger):[9]

• 3 Beechcraft 1900D
• 10 Bombardier Dash 8 Q100

Era Aviation previously operated Convair 580 turboprop aircraft as well as de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter and DHC-7 Dash 7 turboprop aircraft. The Twin Otter and Dash 7 are short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft. The company also operated a Lear 35 business jet; however, this aircraft was not used in scheduled passenger airline operations. A flight seeing air tour service with Douglas DC-3 aircraft was also operated from Anchorage as Era Classic Airlines.[10]

Era Avation was owned by Rowan Companies from 1967 until late 2004. On Jan 4th, 2005 Rowan announced the sale of the airline to SEACOR (effective Dec 30th, 2004) for $118.1 million in cash. 6 months later the airline changed hands again to new owners (SEACOR retained ownership of Era Helicopters, formerly a sister company of Era Aviation, and currently (2021) apart of Bristow Group). Just about 6 months after that, the new ownership of Era Aviation filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in very late 2005. In 2009 the company was acquired by rival Frontier Alaska Group and the Frontier Flying Service Part 121 mainline operation was in the process of being merged into Era Aviation's certificate.[11] In 2010, Era Alaska was formed using the assets of Frontier Alaska Group, Frontier Flying Service, Era Aviation, and Hageland Aviation. In 2014, Era's parent company changed its name to Corvus Airlines d/b/a Ravn Alaska.

• List of defunct airlines of the United States

• flyravn.com