Ravn Alaska: flying everywhere, with anything.

AuthorAnderson, Tasha
PositionSPECIAL SECTION: Transportation

Ravn Alaska has had anything but a traditional business history. The company's 2014 rebranding delineated clearly for clients and customers what the company is and how it's going to move forward providing scheduled and chartered passenger and cargo services throughout Alaska.

The Briefest History Possible

Many know parts and pieces of the airlines that have come together under the Ravn name, but the whole history may be outside of the purview of most.

Taken down to the barest brass tacks, the history is this: Frontier Flying Service was founded in 1950 by retired US Air Force Colonel Richard McIntyre. John Hajdukovich bought Frontier in 1974, and in 2005 Frontier acquired the assets of Cape Smythe Air Services. Hageland Aviation Services was founded by Mike Hageland in 1981. In 2008, Frontier and Hageland combined their services, becoming wholly owned subsidiaries by parent company HoTH (H-ajdukovich "o" T-weto H-ageland). In 2009 Era Aviation was purchased by HoTH.

In 2014, to address some confusion in who was who and what did what, the entire group rebranded.

Era has changed its name to Corvus. Corvus is Ravn Alaska: any plane seen flying with Ravn Alaska on the fuselage is a Corvus plane. Hageland and Frontier are still wholly owned subsidiaries that operate Corvus flights under the name Ravn Connect. Collectively, all three can be referred to as Ravn Air Group.

Why Ravn?

Bob Hajdukovich, CEO of Ravn Alaska, says there were a few factors that led to rebranding making sense. In its early days, Era was one company that operated both helicopters and fixed-wing airplanes. It was owned by Rowan, a drilling company, which decided to sell Era. The two types of services were split; SEACOR purchased the helicopters side and turned it into Era Helicopters LLC, while what is now Ravn purchased Era Aviation. "There was this natural confusion in the marketplace between people that understood Era since 1968 to be Era: Era is Era is Era. When Era Helicopters took their company public as Era Group, Inc., they were concerned over the brand name confusion," Hajdukovich says.

Additionally, people had begun to refer to Frontier and Hageland as Era, which wasn't accurate. To clear the air, it was determine an entirely new name was necessary.

"The word raven kept coming up on people's list ... and I recalled that the bird on our tail was actually a raven, but a 1980s version when the style was all hard lines," Hajdukovich says. "So we picked the word raven, but there were too many raven everythings. We decided to remove the letter 'E' because it's silent, and you can say the word without it."

Once Ravn Alaska was settled on as the brand name for the...

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