Leading Edge Aviation Inc., the parent company of Leading Edge Jet Center, has acquired rival Butler Aircraft Services LLC of Redmond.
The acquisition makes Leading Edge the sole fixed-base operator at Redmond Airport. A fixed-base operator provides services such as fueling, hangar storage, aircraft detailing and maintenance to commercial and general aviation aircraft.
Brad Fraley, president of Leading Edge, said the transaction, completed in June, was an amicable one and all but one employee of Butler Aircraft Services retained their jobs. One Butler manager left for other opportunities, Fraley said Friday. Leading Edge employs 20 people at the Redmond Airport, he said.
“Our first and foremost thought has always been our customer,” he said. “We’ve always thought that if we focus on the customer, the rest would work.”
Purchasing Butler’s FBO assets gives Leading Edge responsibility for fueling all commercial carriers that fly into and out of Redmond Airport, including United, Delta, Skywest, Alaska Airlines and Horizon, Fraley said.
“We can handle up to a 737,” he said, referring to a Boeing 737, a medium-range, twin-engine passenger jet, the latest version of which can carry 230 passengers.
Nan Garnick, general manager of Butler Aircraft Co., said Butler Aircraft Services, a subsidiary, was not for sale at the time.
“Leading Edge made us an offer, and it wasn’t an offer we were expecting,” she said Friday. “We’ll miss our clientele. We did business with a lot of really great people and we’ll miss them.”
Neither party disclosed the transaction terms.
Parent company Butler Aircraft Co. continues in business, providing aviation services to state and federal agencies in support of wildland firefighting, she said. Butler provides four fixed-wing aircraft, two for air attack, or coordination of aircraft at fire scenes, and two for fire reconnaissance aircraft.
Butler has been in the business in one form or another since 1947, Garnick said. The relationship between Butler and the city of Redmond, which has jurisdiction over the airport, soured in February 2015 when Butler and KC Aero, which leased Butler its airport space, sued the city, alleging breach of contract. The city settled that suit in summer of that year, and renewed the airport contract, according to The Bulletin archives.
Leading Edge also provides fixed-base operator services at the Bend Airport, as well as running a flight school and maintenance and avionics shops. Fraley said the company is in the process of planning a new helicopter facility at the Bend Airport and may build additional hangars at the Redmond Airport.
Leading Edge, too, provides aviation support for the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management in wildland firefighting. Leading Edge under contract provides two helicopters, pilots, fuel trucks and drivers for that mission, Fraley said.
Nicole Jurgenson, spokeswoman for Redmond Airport, said services would continue without interruption at the airport.
