Page 22 - Dec22T

AOPA
http://aopa.com
members remaining intact. “The in- tegration of Keystone Aviation’s FBOs into TAC Air, along with the backing of Truman Arnold Companies, will allow us to place a renewed focus on our aircraft sales, maintenance and management services,” stated Haber- stock. Sasfai went on to state, “Con- solidation and resource sharing has become a necessary component of today’s aviation services industry in order to provide high quality, low-cost products and services to aircraft own- ers and operators.”
Over the next few years, new air- craft sales became less of a focus and leadership at TAC Air and Key- stone was evolving. In July 2019, The Arnold Companies announced that Joe Gibney, director of business development, was being promoted to vice president and chief operating offi- cer, reporting directly to Greg Arnold. In addition, the same announcement also highlighted the transition of Key- stone’s controller to a new role as vice president and chief operating officer for Keystone Aviation, now reporting directly to Gibney.
Two and a half years later, in Janu- ary 2022, another big announcement hit the airwaves: TAC Air was divest- ing Keystone Aviation. Keystone’s new owner, a New Hampshire-based com- pany, Elevate Aviation Group, would be looking to grow its charter and man- agement services business to the west. Elevate has a palette of worldwide charter and management operations, and the addition of Keystone Aviation made a lot of sense to Elevate CEO Greg Raiff. “Elevate Aviation Group and Keystone Aviation are both fo- cused on delivering outstanding white glove service and mission-critical so- lutions to our clients,” said Raiff. “We believe the business aviation indus- try needs a provider large enough to deliver benefits at scale to its clients without sacrificing the personal touch so critical in a high-end service busi- ness. Together our teams will contin- ue delivering high-touch experiences with more business aviation options than ever before.”
In the deal, TAC Air (since July Signature Aviation) continues to op- erate the former Keystone Aviation
FBOs at SLC and PVU. Elevate and Keystone continue a strategic partner- ship and preferred service at former TAC Air FBO locations throughout the United States.
While speaking with Elevate Aviation Group’s new chief marketing officer, Will Dent, I got the impression that the acquisition of Keystone is just the beginning of a lot of great things to come. “Keystone Aviation’s team has been managing and maintaining business jets for 30 years now, and with the integration of Keystone Aviation into Elevate, we see a bright future for this group of integrated companies. Keystone Aviation was founded on superior customer service, and we feel the same way.” Adding to that, Bill Hoddenbach, Keystone’s long-time director of aircraft maintenance, said “things are moving at 100 miles per hour” and that they’re all excited about what’s to come in the future.
But that’s not quite the end of the story. Just a few weeks before we all got to enjoy the 69th edition of EAA’s Airventure at Oshkosh, WI, the avia- tion world learned that Signature Flight Support had purchased TAC Air and was to add 13 of its FBOs to the Sig- nature portfolio, including the two Keystone FBO locations at Salt Lake City and Provo, Utah. So, as the say- ing goes, “In aviation, the only con- stant is change.”
And with that, we will sign off from 2022’s Company Chronicles column. It has been an eye-opening and seriously fun endeavor to research and learn about some of the company beginnings in our general and business aviation industry – and the families and leaders behind them. Thank you for reading, and please let us know if you would like any additional stories about the people and businesses that serve you and me as we fly.
20 • TWIN & TURBINE / December 2022
Lance Phillips is an aviation profes- sional, writer, pilot and photographer. He is executive director for the Pinnacle Air Network and owns Phillips Aero Services, an aviation marketing services provider. You can contact Lance at lance@phillipsaeroservices.com.