Press Release

Issued by Freeman Jet Center Abilene.

January 10, 2020

Abilene/Lubbock Aero is pleased to announce it has reached an agreement to acquire Chaparral Jet Center located at Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport. Chaparral Jet Center is comprised of an executive terminal, aircraft maintenance, storage facility and a fuel farm.

“Today we celebrate the successful acquisition of Chaparral Jet Center. Our customers will benefit from the expanded footprint of Lubbock Aero at Lubbock Preston Smith International. We are especially pleased to welcome Chaparral Jet Center employees and customers into the Abilene/Lubbock Aero family.” said Joe Crawford, president of Abilene and Lubbock Aero.

Crawford added, “I also offer my congratulations to Wallace Thrash, president of Chaparral Jet Center, for forty years of successful service to the west Texas aviation community. Abilene and Lubbock Aero wish Mr. Thrash the best in all his future endeavours.

“In October of 2018, Abilene and Lubbock Aero were honoured to be accredited as Stage I FBOs according to the International Standards of Business Aircraft Handling (IS-BAH). The primary focus of that programme is safety. The safety of our customers, their aircraft and our employees is priority number one in our company. We are pursuing IS-BAH Stage II certification in October of 2020.” Crawford continued.

Abilene and Lubbock Aero are full-service aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities and are factory service centres for Textron and Cirrus Aircraft. Lubbock Aero has been a provider of FBO services at KLBB since 1990 and is owned by Abilene Aero, which has been the FBO provider at Abilene Regional Airport for 51 years.