Alpine Air Express Inc., a regional air cargo carrier based in Provo, has acquired Suburban Air Freight Inc. of Omaha, Nebraska. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The transaction marks Alpine’s second acquisition since becoming a portfolio company of AE Industrial Partners LP, a private equity firm specializing in aerospace, defense and government services, space and power and utility services. Alpine also acquired the assets of Great Lakes Airlines in 2020.
Alpine is a Part-135 air cargo operator, which conducts unscheduled charter air service. It operates a fleet of more than 50 active aircraft and owns a Supplemental Type Certificate to convert its Beechcraft 1900D aircraft from passenger to cargo configuration, providing service to customers such as UPS, U.S. Postal Service, FedEx and others.
Founded in 1984, Suburban is also 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 an 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,” said Michael Dancy, CEO of Alpine Air. “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.”
“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.”