Alaskan bush specialist Yute Air (Bethel) has announced it has terminated all operations effective Sunday, March 5. In a Facebook announcement, the carrier blamed "marketplace challenges" without elaborating.

Based out of Bethel, Alaska, Yute Air had offered regular passenger and cargo flights to twenty villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta region in Western Alaska.

Yute Air said Ravn Alaska, also known as Corvus Airlines (Anchorage Ted Stevens), would honour tickets already paid for through March 31. In addition, Ravn will also cover several of Yute's routes including Napaskiak, Napakiak, Goodnews Bay and Platinum starting this weekend.

Yute Air's President, Tim Vottis, told the Alaska Dispatch News on Monday the carrier had sold its hangar and crew facilities along with its fleet of twelve Cessna (single piston) 207s and two 172s, to Ravn Alaska shortly before winding up operations.