United Aviation Services Acquires Ibizair and Mallorcair to Expand FBO Network in Balearic Islands
Why It MattersThe deal shows FBO groups growing by buying established local handlers at high-demand leisure and business aviation airports rather than building operations from scratch.
What happened
United Aviation Services, a company integrated into Stellair Group, has completed the acquisition of Ibizair and Mallorcair, two firms specialising in handling services and FBO operations for executive aviation at the airports of Eivissa and Palma, respectively. Both acquired companies provide services to operators and owners of private aircraft.
Mallorcair, founded in 1991, operates at Palma airport, where it provides handling services and runs its own FBO within the general aviation terminal, offering facilities for both passengers and crews. Ibizair has more than three decades of experience at Eivissa airport, providing handling and FBO management services for private and executive aviation aircraft, as well as passenger and crew assistance, flight coordination, catering, customs and immigration services, and personalised attention.
Grant Thornton's mergers and acquisitions team advised the sellers during the divestment process. The deal is described as aligned with Stellair Group's expansion strategy, which focuses on consolidating a high-quality service network for international operators and private clients in key markets.
Industry impact & what to watch
This acquisition fits a broader move in executive aviation ground handling: groups such as Stellair build scale by buying operators that already hold the airport relationships, terminal space and local expertise rather than establishing a new FBO presence from zero. Eivissa and Palma are named as locations with significant tourist and business activity, which is precisely the kind of seasonal, high-value traffic that makes an established local handler valuable to acquire outright.
For the FBO segment, this illustrates how consolidation typically proceeds market by market: a buyer with a network strategy acquires long-standing local names, such as Mallorcair since 1991 and Ibizair's three-decades-plus history, and folds their existing customer relationships and infrastructure into a wider international network. The involvement of an advisory firm on the sellers' side points to a structured divestment rather than an informal handover.
What happens next will show in how United Aviation Services integrates the two brands and whether Stellair Group pursues further additions in other key markets under the same expansion strategy.
