On the Record with BRUCE VAN ALLEN, PRESIDENT & CEO,
BBA AVIATION SERVICES GROUP
"An acquisitive company looking for opportunities,"
has been the operative phrase for BBA over the past several years,
according to Bruce Van Allen, president and CEO of the BBA Aviation
Services Group. The company comes to NBAA this year with two just-completed
acquisitions, one each in its primary business segments-engine
maintenance and FBOs.
In April, BBA's Dallas Airmotive subsidiary acquired the assets of Premier
Turbines, a division of Sabreliner Corp. And in May, BBA's Signature
Flight Support subsidiary acquired the Midcoast Aviation fixed base
operation at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport-also from Sabreliner.
"Not a lot of people are investing, but we're in a good situation,"
Van Allen told Show News. "We exited the airframe maintenance
and repair station business three years ago and purified some of
the things we do."
BBA's engine maintenance business-through Dallas Airmotive, and the International
Turbine and Barrett Turbine engine parts businesses-as well as the
40-plus FBOs within the Signature chain, have given the company
significant cash flow during the two-year economic downturn since
9/11.
"All of these businesses are cash generative, from which we
can fund our acquisitions," said Van Allen. "We're sitting
on a bit of a war chest for acquisition opportunities."
BBA has been profitable for two reasons, explained Van Allen.
First, Dallas Airmotive and the company's engine maintenance business
has remained independent from the individual engine OEMs, and
offers services for a wide range of powerplants: Pratt & Whitney
Canada PT6A/T, JT15D and PW100; Rolls-Royce Tay, Spey and Model
250; General Electric CF34, CF700 and CJ610; Honeywell TFE731,
ATF3, ALF500 Series and 36 Series APU, and Hamilton Sundstrand
APS 500 Series APUs. "We're not just peddling one product,"
said Van Allen. "We can go to a flight department and leverage
that broad range of products and price accordingly to the benefit
of the customer."
And second, many of the individual FBOs within the Signature Flight
Support network are located in the major cities of the United
States-Boston, Dallas, Las Vegas, Chicago, New York, and Washington,
D.C. (closed since 9/11)-which are the centers that business people
still have to fly to even with the economic downturn. As such,
business has remained strong compared to FBO chains that have
facilities primarily in second-tier cities.
Signature's presence in the nation's major business centers has
also meant that it has had to invest a significant amount of money
for security measures. Van Allen says that security is uppermost
in his mind, accentuated by Signature's as-yet-still-shuttered
FBO at Reagan National on the Potomac. "We've experienced
continuing tangible distress of this issue," said Van Allen.
Though there has been no specific security mandate governing business
aviation, Van Allen says Signature had done much more than just
make sure the gates are locked. Cameras and video equipment have
been installed at numerous locations, and "absolute identification"
of flight crews is employed by company personnel.
