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. 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. Era was a wholly-owned division of the Rowan Companies. 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-8Dash 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. 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 which has since changed the marketing name of all the airlines to Ravn Alaska/Ravn Connect brands.
Destinations
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. Most flights were operated from its hub located at the Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage:
Era Aviation previously operated Convair 580 turboprop aircraft as well as de Havilland CanadaDHC-6 Twin Otter and DHC-7 Dash 7 turboprop aircraft. The Twin Otter and Dash 7 are short takeoff and landing aircraft. The company also operated a Lear 35business 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.
Bankruptcy and buyout
After being bought and sold several times over the years, Era filed for bankruptcy in 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. 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.
