Jetride Cuts Positions in Aspen Acquisition

Pinnacle Air of Springdale, which has done business as Jetride since purchasing the Columbus, Ohio, company in late 2006 for $41 million, has completed its acquisition of Aspen Executive Air and brought in Chicago billionaire John Calamos as a controlling shareholder.

According to the Aspen Daily News, seven employees were let go as Jetride consolidated flight coordination operations in DuPage, Ill. Former AEX CEO John Gallagher is now a vice president at Jetride.

Calamos has injected large amounts of liquidity into AEX, preventing it from folding when it filed for bankruptcy reorganization last September.

Pinnacle Air was founded by the original Pinnacle Group of Tim Graham, the late J.B. Hunt, Bill Schwyhart and Robert Thornton. The Pinnacle Group has since split, with Graham and Johnelle Hunt keeping the name while Schwyhart and Thornton formed Pinnacle Investments.

Hunt and Graham divested themselves from their interests in Jetride last year. Jetride now operates a fleet of 26 planes with a total value of more than $100 million.

The AEX deal allows Jetride to acquire the membership of the company, which has more than 50 members who prepay for charter services with a minimum account of $125,000.

In October, when Jetride signed the letter-of-intent to acquire AEX, president Wynn Peterson said the move would allow AEX to realize Jetride’s advantages of scale as a “wholesale” charter operation.

It will also allow Jetride to expand into the “retail” charter business and have a direct relationship with its customers.