TAG Aviation Holding has completed its departure from business aviation with the announcement that it sold off its aircraft charter/management divisions TAG Aviation SA and TAG Aviation Asia, in which it held a 51 percent stake, to its joint venture partner in Asia, Young Brothers Aviation, and another unidentified private investor. The Asia sale also includes the TAG FBO in Macau and its Asian maintenance operations.
The news comes as little surprise as TAG Aviation Holding has been steadily dismantling its once broad private aviation portfolio. In February 2019, the company sold off its European aircraft maintenance business to Dassault and the following September divested the UK’s Farnborough Airport, once the jewel in the company’s crown. Just earlier this month Signature Flight Support reported it had purchased the TAG FBOs in Geneva and Sion, Switzerland.
Chairman Roger McMullin told AIN that TAG Aviation Holding, which was organized in 1998 with the Ojjeh-family-led TAG Group as principal shareholder, will be wound down by the end of the month.
The company noted use of the TAG Aviation name and logo would continue under the new ownership, and that several of its current directors will continue to serve on the boards of the two companies. Jo Goodall, a long-term TAG employee, will succeed Daniel Christe as CEO of TAG Aviation Europe, and Steven Young, currently president of TAG Aviation Asia, will succeed Jolie Howard as CEO of the division.
"Young Brothers Aviation has been a trusted partner of ours for over 20 years, and we are pleased that they have chosen to increase their ownership stake in the charter/management companies," said McMullin. "Their presence, combined with the continuity of board membership, assures our customers and employees alike that the culture and values that have characterized TAG Aviation over the past 50-plus years will remain."