Two hundred seventy workers lost their jobs. Dozens of remote Alaskan towns lost their only reliable connection to the outside world. And on August 5, 2025, a 77-year-old airline vanished from Alaska’s skies.
Ravn Alaska flew its last commercial flight that afternoon. Flight 308, a de Havilland Dash-8, departed Valdez at 3:40 PM and landed in Anchorage at 4:15 PM. Three minutes early. No fanfare. No announcement.
Nine days later, the airline posted a brief message on its website. “We appreciate the years of service we were able to provide to Alaska communities. While we are no longer operating flights in Alaska, we’re grateful for the trust you placed in us during our time serving the region.”
CEO Tom Hsieh confirmed the closure to the Anchorage Daily News but declined to discuss severance packages or restructuring plans.
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How Alaska’s Largest Rural Carrier Collapsed
The airline had been shedding routes and staff for months. In February 2024, Ravn laid off 130 employees, including 22 pilots. That cut represented one-third of the workforce. CEO Rob McKinney departed. Tom Hsieh, president of parent company FLOAT Alaska, took over.
By December 2024, Ravn notified federal transportation officials it would stop flying to St. Mary’s and Unalakleet. The airline cited rising fuel costs, inflation, and labor shortages. “The significant increase in operational costs over the past several years has made it economically untenable,” Ravn wrote in federal filings.
In July 2025, the carrier stopped serving St. Paul Island. By August, only three routes remained: Valdez, St. Paul, and St. Mary’s. Then nothing.
The numbers tell the story. Ravn once served more than 100 Alaskan communities. At its final peak in early 2025, that network had shrunk to 12 destinations. By shutdown, just three.
From Helicopters to Bankruptcy
Carl Brady founded the company as Economy Helicopters in June 1948. He flew the first commercial helicopter to Alaska on a government mapping contract. The operation grew over decades, renamed several times. Era Helicopters. Era Aviation. Finally, Ravn Alaska in January 2014.
This wasn’t the airline’s first collapse. In April 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic crushed passenger traffic. Revenue dropped 90 percent. Ravn filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and grounded its entire fleet. More than 1,300 employees lost their jobs. Rural communities across Alaska suddenly had no scheduled air service.
Float Alaska bought the carrier’s assets at bankruptcy auction in July 2020 for over $9 million. The airline restarted operations that fall, initially flying to Dutch Harbor, Homer, Kenai, Sand Point, and Valdez. The restart looked promising. It wasn’t.
The parent company tried expanding beyond Alaska. Northern Pacific Airways, later rebranded New Pacific Airlines, purchased Boeing 757 aircraft to fly between North America and Asia through Anchorage. Those international flights never materialized. Instead, New Pacific operated limited charter service from California to Las Vegas, Reno, and Nashville. The airline lost money on every flight.
New Pacific shut down November 26, 2025. Two months later, on January 26, 2026, Float Alaska filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Court documents listed assets between $1 million and $10 million. Liabilities ranged from $10 million to $50 million.
Communities Lose Their Lifeline
For villages without road access, air service isn’t convenience. It’s survival. Mail arrives by plane. Medical supplies arrive by plane. Groceries arrive by plane. Residents travel to Anchorage for healthcare, government services, and family visits by plane.
Ravn operated 37-seat de Havilland aircraft on many routes. When the carrier disappeared, replacement airlines arrived with nine-passenger planes. Fewer seats. Higher costs. Less frequent service.
Alaska Airlines responded first. The major carrier extended seasonal flights to King Salmon and Dillingham and added service to Cold Bay. Alaska Airlines also hosted job fairs for displaced Ravn workers.
Aleutian Airways picked up routes to Dutch Harbor, Sand Point, and Cold Bay. Kenai Aviation won the Essential Air Service contract for St. Paul Island, though aircraft maintenance problems delayed the start of service by six weeks. Grant Aviation coordinated with the U.S. Postal Service and rural hospitals to maintain mail and medical transport.
The gaps remain. Jacob Caldwell, owner of Kenai Aviation, told the Anchorage Daily News that Alaska’s rural aviation market has fundamentally changed. “Communities are used to service with larger airplanes, but many of those aircraft are at the end of their service lifetimes,” he said. Federal regulations limit smaller carriers to nine-passenger aircraft, creating a mismatch between community needs and available service.
Federal Funding Cuts Loom
The Trump administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposed cutting Essential Air Service funding by $308 million. That represents a reduction of more than 50 percent. Rural Alaska depends heavily on these federal subsidies, which make flights to remote communities financially viable for carriers.
The budget request explained the rationale: “The EAS program funnels taxpayer dollars to airlines to subsidize half-empty flights.” For communities already dealing with reduced service after Ravn’s shutdown, further funding cuts could mean even fewer flight options.
What Comes Next for Alaska Aviation
Alaska now faces a question it has confronted before. Can smaller regional carriers maintain reliable service to dozens of remote communities? Or will more routes disappear as operational costs rise and federal support shrinks?
The economics haven’t changed since Ravn’s collapse. Fuel costs remain high. Aircraft maintenance is expensive. Alaska’s geography spreads a small population across a massive area. Flying 37-seat planes to villages with populations under 1,000 rarely makes financial sense.
For the 270 Ravn employees who lost their jobs in August, the shutdown ended careers that spanned decades. For rural residents watching smaller planes arrive less frequently, the carrier’s collapse means higher airfare, longer waits, and fewer connections to the world beyond their villages.
Ravn Alaska operated for 77 years. Five years after its first bankruptcy, the regional airline couldn’t survive a second.
