Regional

 RavnAir Group’s two regional airlines will continue flying in Alaska after a Southern California commuter service struck a last-minute deal to buy their operating certificates out of bankruptcy, outbidding a group of veteran Alaska transportation executives.

A Southern California commuter flight service, Float Shuttle, is set to take over the large planes and regional service once operated by RavnAir Group, which declared bankruptcy amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alaska's largest rural air carrier, the bankrupt RavnAir Group, aborted a planned auction Wednesday for its remaining core assets, casting doubt over the fate of the company's 1,300 employees and the future of flight service to the array of communities it once served.

Nearly half of Sand Point's police force is leaving the department, according to city officials. 

The 950-person island community — located about 550 miles southwest of Anchorage in the eastern portion of the Aleutian Chain — has a five-person police department that rotates into the community on a two week on, two week off basis.

Chief Hal Henning and Officer Mark Chandler submitted letters of resignation on Monday, and have already left the community, according to City Administrator Jordan Keeler.

RavnAir Group says it's received nearly 30 bids to buy the airline, or pieces of it, out of bankruptcy, its attorney said at a Thursday court hearing.

Five bidders are interested in buying the company intact, as a "going concern," Ravn attorney Tobias Keller said at the hearing in Delaware federal bankruptcy court. There were also nearly a dozen offers to buy "substantial assets" from Ravn — not the whole business, but more than $1 million, Keller said.

Other bids were for a single plane or a particular lease, he added.