Era Aviation: Blue Skies Ahead for Growing Airline.

• Author: GRENN, BEN
• Position: Brief Article

This company is in its fifth decade of operating in Alaska.

If Era Aviation had a company theme song, it might be Irving Berlin's hit, "Blue Skies" "...nothing but blue skies from now on."

In fact, the 1946 hit is only a couple of years older than Era Aviation, which has been flying the blue skies since 1948.

It was that year that an adventure-some young man named Carl F. Brady, Sr. brought a Bell 47A helicopter to Alaska, establishing what is now Era Aviation. The U.S. government was preparing to map the territory of Alaska and Brady saw an opportunity for his helicopter.

The main reason that Era Aviation is still operating, now in its in fifth decade, is its "high quality of customer service," says President Charles W. Johnson. "The key to survival is good customer service; we have provided that in many aspects and look forward to continuing the same in the long-term future.

"It's because of our people that we're still around here. They're like the Rock of Gibraltar."

The blue sky over Alaska isn't the only place you'll see Era copters in action. Era is the world's oldest, continuously operating helicopter company, and one of the largest civil aviation operators-with operations in Reno, Nev.; Lake Charles, La., and the Gulf Coast.

And it appears now that the Russian Far East may well be in the flight pattern of Era's future. Paul Landis, vice president of fixed-wing operations at Era Aviation, had sought Zoomerang, an online marketing clearinghouse, to conduct a market survey on the potential of Era offering service to Russia.

Landis said the impetuous for the survey was the discontinuation of scheduled flights to Russia by long-time Alaska aviation giant Reeve Aleutian Airways Inc.

Shortly before closing its doors in December, Reeve officials stated that there was some growth on their Russian Far East flights.

"We have a long history of service to the oil industry and have the capabilities of inter-island and helicopter service on Sakhalin," said Johnson, who has been Era Aviation president and chief operating officer since 1993. "We are looking very cautiously at the service, based on other carriers that are no longer serving that part of the world."

In the meantime, over 2.5 million company flight hours have been logged with a fleet of nearly 100 helicopters and 21 fixed-wing aircraft. The latest addition to the fleet is a de Havilland Dash 8 Combi cargo kit.

"This aircraft is a big boost to our cargo capacity and will add new lift...