Ravn cuts workforce two years after pilots unionize

Ravn Alaska has just cut 130 jobs, about one-quarter of its workforce. The Anchorage-based regional airlines that flies between Anchorage and western Alaska towns and cities announced the layoffs to workers Friday.

The airline flies Beechcraft and DeHavilland Dash 8s. Late last year, Ravn stopped serving two of its 12 destinations — Kenai and Aniak.

The airlines had declared bankruptcy in 2020, sold off some of its aircraft, and reorganized. Its parent company is FLOAT Alaska.

Ravn is suffering from a labor shortage, competition, and inflation, it reported. But in 2022, its pilots joined a union — Airline Pilots Association. Two years later, their company is evidently struggling to stay alive.

“In late 2022, the pilots’ Negotiating Committee began preparing for negotiations and surveyed the pilot group with the goal of securing a first collective bargaining agreement. Bargaining began in early 2023 and is ongoing,” reported the pilots union.

Ravn’s CEO is Rob McKinney, also CEO of what launched as Northern Pacific Airways last summer and then changed its named last year to New Pacific Airlines. That company has also struggled. First it planned to fly to Asia through Alaska. Then it inaugurated its service from Ontario, Calif. to Las Vegas, Nevada. It appears to be operating now to Nashville, Tenn. and Reno, Nevada airports from Ontario.