April was a banner month for Landmark Aviation, beginning with the Carlyle Group subsidiary announcing it had entered the UK FBO market in a big way by buying the three former RSS Jet Centre locations at London Luton Airport, Manchester Airport and Glasgow Prestwick Airport. But that news only served as the opening act for Landmark’s bombshell that it had agreed to purchase Colorado-based Ross Aviation and, in the process, expand its U.S. network by 50 percent. The deal is the largest addition to an FBO chain since 2006, when Macquarie Investments bought the former Trajen FBO network’s 23 locations and merged them under its Atlantic Aviation banner.
Ross, whose 19 FBOs operate under their own individual names, quietly rose to become the fifth largest aviation service provider chain in the U.S. since its start a decade ago. Over the past year alone, the company added five FBOs, in addition to a hangar facility at New Jersey’s Morristown Municipal Airport.
