It has not been the easiest of years for both small and even mid-size airlines.
The first half of 2025 was marked by Silver Airways' reassurances that it would be able to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy before the Florida-based vacation airline ultimately told travelers to not come to the airport and seek refunds from their credit card provider: it had run its last flight.
Even though it had formally emerged from bankruptcy in February 2025, Spirit Airlines (SAVE) admitted “substantial doubt” regarding its ability to stay in business in its most recent quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Other airlines that had to completely shut down operations in 2025 include Air Belgium and Jetstar Asia.
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‘Grateful for the trust you placed in us during our time serving the region'
This week, regional airline Ravn Alaska joined the latter list with a site update stating that it was “no longer operating flights” effective immediately.
“We appreciate the years of service we were able to provide to Alaska communities,” the full Ravn Alaska statement reads. “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.”
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Ravn Alaska was founded in 1947 as a small charter airline serving remote communities in the state (due to its very large size and vast stretches of remote territory, Alaska sees the highest use of private jets compared to any other state).
Headquartered at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), Ravn Alaska would eventually expand to serve a peak 12 destinations such as Homer and St. Paul Island as well as larger cities like Fairbanks before flagging finances started to catch up to it.
In 2023, the carrier sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and laid off 130 of its workers some months later. The move mirrored a very similar situation in 2020 when the airline also filed for bankruptcy protection amid the pandemic-related drop in travel and briefly ceased all operations before parent company FLOAT Alaska LLC helped relaunch it with a significantly downsized fleet of Dash 8-100 planes.
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Airline has a long Alaska history, served rural communities
The airline has had multiple owners over the decades, beginning from its helicopter founder Carl Brady to Houston-based Rowan Companies in the 1960s and regional holding company HoTH in more modern times.
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The last-ditch efforts to save Ravn Alaska did not pan out as the parent company had hoped as it launched a new route to Dillingham in Nushawak Bay in 2022 only to be forced to pull out of the market shortly after. In 2024, chief executive Rob McKinney left his role and forced Tom Hsieh of FLOAT to step into the position in interim.
By August 2024, Ravn had also canceled flights to Unalaska and Sand Point on the Aleutian Islands in what it at the time classified as a “necessary step in our long-term strategy to strengthen the overall success of our airline.”
Local competitor Aleutian Airways has so far been serving Sand Point to fill the gap in service to rural communities.
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