Leading Edge Avionics of Santa Ana has made a key acquisition to become Southern California’s largest network for servicing communications, radar, navigation and entertainment systems on board private, charter and corporate aircraft.
Leading Edge said Oct. 19 it had acquired Advantage Avionics in Chino, its biggest competitor, and now services airplanes and helicopters at more than 30 airports in the region.
Financial details were not released.
Leading Edge, located at John Wayne Airport, has been steadily growing over the last five years, says Chairman Mike Manclark.
It has a lengthy backlog of work. “We’re booked out until February,” the 57-year-old Manclark told the Business Journal on Oct. 20.
He foresees revenue of between $30 million to $45 million within the next three years.
In addition to radar, communications and other aircraft work, he said adding Wi-Fi to corporate jets is a booming business for Leading Edge Avionics.
“On corporate jets now, most charter companies are having us install Wi-Fi on the aircraft,” Manclark said. “They want Wi-Fi because most of the people flying them want to make sure they can do their Instagrams and Tik-Toks while they’re flying around the country.”
JWA, Long Beach
Manclark in 1985 founded a previous company, Leading Edge Aviation Services, which provided painting, fueling and maintenance to commercial and military aircraft.
The aviation services company earned a Business Journal Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award in 2012; at the time its operations included five hangars totaling 235,000 square feet. It was later sold to a venture capital firm.
The current company, Leading Edge Avionics, continues to expand its operations presence at area airports. “We actually leased out the largest single corporate hangar here on the airport, where we’re going to open up a big service center,” Manclark said of the company’s facilities at John Wayne Airport.
Manclark also says the company is in the “final steps” of taking over a Gulfstream facility in Long Beach, “which would give us a lot more capabilities—maintenance and interior work, a lot of things that our customers want done.”
“We’ll be able to store Gulfstreams in there, which is very lucrative, having hangars big enough to put aircraft inside. Then we’ll also do interior work and enhanced avionics,” he said.
Manclark emphasized the need for top quality maintenance for aircraft.
“Our top priority is to increase the safety of flight to our customers through the incredible advancements in avionics available today. We do that by having a team of professionals that are without a doubt the best in the business,” he said.
Leaning Forward
“Existing Advantage Aviation customers can rest assured that the integration will be seamless and will not impact any scheduled installs,” the company said in announcing the acquisition on Oct. 19.
Leading Edge says the acquisition of Advantage allows it to now “offer a level of service and capabilities on a scale never accomplished here in California.”
“I always like to run a company like I’m being chased—like somebody’s after me to put me out of business,” Manclark said. “We really lean forward.”Â
