Rigby Group in major Birmingham Airport deal

The Rigby Group has agreed a multi-million-pound deal to buy the corporate jet centre at Birmingham Airport from Marshall Aviation Services.

The group already operates jet centres at Coventry and Exeter airports and eight months ago brought them under the banner of XLR Executive Jet Centres, with a company of that name created last month ahead of this deal.

The purchase, for an undisclosed sum, is a major step in its expansion strategy as it links its services with one of the UK’s busiest executive flight destinations.

Sir Peter Rigby, chairman of Warwickshire-based Rigby Group, said: “The establishment of a new XLR Jet Centre at Birmingham Airport marks a huge step forward in our plans for the company, placing its operations at the heart of one of the UK’s busiest and most accessible airports and opening up significant opportunities not only in domestic executive travel, but also in servicing the growing market across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.”

Sir Peter Rigby, chairman of the Rigby Group

Marshall Aviation Services, part of the £1.6bn-turnover aerospace group Marshall, had been struggling with declining turnover. It recorded heavy losses in its last two sets of annual accounts, for 2014 and 2015, which resulted in it issuing a going concern warning.

This deal sees XLR acquire the 44,000 sq ft Business Aviation Centre, of which around 60% of the space is a heat-controlled hangar. It also includes lounges for up to 60 passengers, and a 3,052 metre runway that is capable of taking the A380.

Ten people are employed on site, which can operate around the clock.

Sir Peter added: “Following our most recent investments in Exeter and Coventry, the Birmingham acquisition leaves us superbly positioned to execute our strategy of leveraging the group’s expertise and commitment to excellence to create a new major player in the corporate aviation market.”

XLR has “experienced solid growth” over the past year, helped by Coventry growing its reputation as an alternative to London airports for private flights.

Chris Beer, XLR’s director of corporate aviation, believes the business is now well placed “to create a new force in executive jet travel”.

He added: “While we have already built an excellent reputation within the industry based on an extremely customer-centric focus, this latest acquisition will enable a significant step up in terms of the both the markets we are able to compete in and our operational scale.”