Story ID: 
Two UK helo firms land at McAlpine
By: Charles Alcock
Caption: The BBA Group sold its Signature Aircraft Engineering rotorcraft maintenance business and Signature Helicopters charter operation to the UK’s McAlpine grou
Word Count: 211
The BBA Group sold its Signature Aircraft Engineering rotorcraft maintenance business and Signature Helicopters charter operation to the UK’s McAlpine group for an undisclosed sum. The companies, which are based, respectively, at Blackbushe and Denham Airports in southern England, will be combined with McAlpine’s existing aviation services subsidiaries with annual revenues of around $23 million.Following the deal, helicopter charter and management firm McAlpine Aviation Services will be merged with Signature Helicopters and will trade under the name PremiAir Aviation from a headquarters at Hayes in the London area. Signature Aircraft Engineering will be rebranded as PremiAir Aircraft Engineering. BBA has retained ownership of its Signature Aircraft Engineering fixed-wing maintenance operations at Oxford, Southampton, Bournemouth and Luton Airports in the UK. It has also kept its Luton-based fixed-wing charter/management arm, which now includes a new Falcon 2000 that was delivered in August. The company sold the last of its own charter fleet last year, when it chose to dispose of a Hawker 800 rather than having to foot the bill for upgrading it for RVSM operations.BBA’s European aviation service interests also include Signature Flight Support, with FBOs at London Luton and Paris Le Bourget Airports. It is developing a new business aviation terminal at Toulon-Hyeres Airport in southern France.