US fixed-base operator (FBO) chain Ross Aviation has been resurrected by its former owner, two years after the company was snapped-up by business aviation services provider Landmark Aviation.
Jeffrey Ross, president and chief executive of Ross Aviation, joined forces with US private equity firm KSL Capital Partners to purchase six FBOs for $190 million. These facilities were sold in June by UK aviation services company BBA, as a condition of its purchase of Landmark.
BBA - owner of the Signature Flight Support FBO chain – acquired the Houston, Texas-based company from the Carlyle Group for $2 billion.
That deal – which included 62 facilities and 110 business jets and turboprops – is the largest in the history of the business aviation services industry.
Ross’s newly acquired FBOs are located in Anchorage, Alaska; Fresno and Palm Springs, California; Scottsdale, Arizona; White Plains, New York; and Washington Dulles, Virginia.
Ross was founded in 2004 and expanded rapidly to become the fourth largest FBO network in the USA, with 21 facilities.
BBA’s divestiture of the six Landmark FBOs – described as “very attractive” by Jeffrey Ross – was the catalyst for his return to the market.
“They will provide a platform for future expansion within the USA and internationally,” Ross says.
Signature operates the largest FBO chain in the world, with nearly 200 sites in its network.
Source: Flight International
