Alpine Air Express, Inc., a leading regional air cargo carrier providing critical air infrastructure supporting a wide range of integrated logistics operations throughout North America, announced that it has acquired Suburban Air Freight Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
This strategic addition marks Alpine's second acquisition since becoming a portfolio company of AE Industrial Partners, LP ("AEI"), a private equity firm specializing in aerospace, defense & government services, space, power & utility services, and specialty industrial markets. Alpine also acquired the assets of Great Lakes Airlines in 2020.
Headquartered in Provo, Utah, Alpine is a leading Part-135 air cargo operator with a long and distinguished history of providing its customers with safe and reliable air cargo transportation services. Alpine operates a growing fleet of more than 50 active aircraft and owns a proprietary Supplemental Type Certificate ("STC") to convert the Beechcraft 1900D aircraft from passenger to cargo configuration, providing a unique value proposition to its blue-chip customers such as UPS, U.S. Postal Service, FedEx and others.
Founded in 1984 and headquartered in Omaha, NE, Suburban is a Part-135 regional air cargo carrier providing dedicated air cargo services to DHL and other leading customers. Much like Alpine, Suburban primarily operates a fleet of Beech 1900s and operates a highly complementary integrated maintenance operations team. Suburban's leadership team of Geoff Gallup and Jay Armstrong will remain with the Company to help transition Suburban into this next chapter and assist with the integration into Alpine.
"Suburban is a leading regional air cargo carrier with a reputation for quality service and safety. The addition of Suburban and its talented team significantly expands our Company and its market position, enabling us to better serve our new and existing customers."
Michael Dancy, CEO of Alpine Air
"Growing e-commerce activity, faster delivery requirements and supply chain complexity has increased the demand for large scale, reliable regional air cargo service providers," said Jon Nemo, Senior Partner at AEI. "We have invested significantly in Alpine, including this strategic addition of Suburban, to create a leading provider of critical air cargo infrastructure capable of meeting this growing demand."
"Safe and reliable service has also been our key focus while providing additional routes to better serve our customers, and as part of Alpine, we'll have greater resources to realize both objectives," said Mr. Gallup. "We look forward to partnering with both the Alpine and AEI teams as we expand our business."
BDO served as financial advisor and Akerman served as legal advisor to AIpine. Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith was the legal advisor to Suburban.
About Alpine Air Express
Headquartered in Provo, Utah, Alpine is a leading a leading regional air cargo carrier providing critical air infrastructure supporting a wide range of integrated logistics operations throughout North America. Alpine operates a growing fleet of aircraft and owns a proprietary Supplemental Type Certificate ("STC") to convert the Beechcraft 1900D aircraft from passenger configuration to cargo configuration, making it the largest single pilot cargo aircraft in the world.
About AE Industrial Partners
AE Industrial Partners is a private equity firm specializing in aerospace, defense & government services, space, power & utility services, and specialty industrial markets. AE Industrial Partners invests in market-leading companies that can benefit from its deep industry knowledge, operating experience, and relationships throughout its target markets. AE Industrial Partners is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment and the ILPA Diversity in Action initiative.