Everyone who has become accustomed to flying ERA is now flying RAVN, the new name for the company that has been serving Kenai and rural Alaska for many years. Kathy Roser, Kenai station manager and director of customer service told the Dispatch, “We’re not making any operational changes at all, everything is the same, we’re the same airline taking you to your favorite destinations throughout Alaska serving over a hundred communities and offering charter service. Everything’s the same even our colors just a new name and logo,” said Roser. The reason for the new name according to Roser was to establish the difference between ERA Helicopters and ERA Alaska, “It was time to re-brand ourselves so we chose the historically iconic symbol of the Alaskan Raven and dropped the ‘e’ making it Ravn to set us apart from other businesses that use the name Raven in Alaska, but like the Raven we fly statewide and are a united family working hard to serve those needing transportation in Alaska,” she said.

That statement was proven a few weeks ago when the only winter storm to hit during the month of March diverted a United Airlines flight to Kenai, “It was a great emergency drill for us and I was so proud of the way our Kenai station and crew responded, they did a phenomenal job and our crew stepped up with three of our planes on the ground plus the United jet and Alaska jet and an Evarts plane all waiting for deicing and refueling and they got them all back in the air as soon as conditions allowed, with the United flight having to overnight due the pilot timing out. Our crew went and got pizzas and sodas and bought Walmart out of pillows and blankets. There were 103 passengers on board that flight, so we even took care of the dogs that were in the back of the aircraft and took them out and walked and watered them, it was a great training experience and the passengers were definitely ready to leave, but they were appreciative of our effort and we invited them to all come back and see us again,” said Roser.

For those use to going to the Flyera website for reservations and information nothing will change and the old name on your computer or hand held device will not need to be updated, “It’ll be very simply for our customers if you log on to Era.com it’s automatically going to link you right to Ravn website so there’s no need to change anything you already have in your computer or device it’ll get you right to us and no need to change your fly-away rewards either. The next thing we are doing is changing things in the public eye like the way we answer the phones, our uniforms and signage so it’ll take about a year before all the manuals and behind the scene things get the new logo and name, but we’re excited about the new branding it’s a strong and iconic name that we honor highly and look forward to living up to its reputation.”