Waukesha-based Spring City Aviation has acquired Milwaukee-based Gran Aire Inc., roughly doubling its size. The transaction closed Dec. 16 and the terms were not disclosed.
Spring City, which has 20 employees, is a fixed-base operator that provides flight training, air charter and aircraft brokering services at Waukesha County Airport in Waukesha and Burlington Municipal Airport in Burlington.
Gran Aire, which has 22 employees, was located at Lawrence J. Timmerman Airport, 9305 W. Appleton Ave., Milwaukee. It has served as a fixed-base operator at Timmerman since 1946.
With the acquisition of Gran Aire, Spring City will begin operating at Timmerman and will add fuel sales for piston- and turbine-engine aircraft, a large inventory of aircraft parts, branded aircraft maintenance and aircraft hangar rental to its offerings. It also will keep all the Gran Aire employees on staff.
Milwaukee County has approved the acquisition and on Friday assigned a new lease to Spring City Aviation. Spring City plans to renovate the existing customer facilities and put in place new marketing and fuel sales programs to attract additional customers at Timmerman in 2017, said Gavin Leake, general manager of Spring City at Timmerman.
The driving force of the acquisition was fuel sales, a market Spring City will enter for the first time, he said. It will provide additional underlying revenue, particularly from transient customers, to support the business.
“Spring City Aviation is excited to be the new fixed base operator at Lawrence J. Timmerman airport, and we believe this acquisition will allow us to better serve existing and new customers, as well as materially increase the number of aircraft operations at LJTA,” Leake said. “Gran Aire has become one of the most respected aviation companies in Wisconsin, and Spring City Aviation will continue providing the same great services that existing customers of both businesses have come to expect.”
