Air Charter Sterling Aviation Set to Fly with Brand New Wings

Newly christened Sterling Aviation is now gaining speed and cruising altitude as a result of acquiring and renaming Scott Air Charter.

Chris and Dan Doerr, the former owners of Leeson Electric Corp. of Grafton, have purchased Scott Air. Upon meeting with Scott Air employees, the Doerrs advised everyone in attendance that they plan on doubling the size of the largest charter service in the state of Wisconsin, which is based in Milwaukee.

While the purchase price of the acquisition was not disclosed, it was revealed that Scott Air Charter founder Tom Scott, the man who created the company 21 years ago, will remain with Sterling, along with Nora Lenardic, the executive vice president.

Leeson Electric was founded by the Doerrs in 1972 and in 2000 was sold to Regal-Beloit Corp. for $260 million in cash.

The Grafton Company, an organization that manufactures industrial electric motors and gearboxes, had 1,300 employees at eight U.S. and Canadian plants at the time of the sale.

Not only do the Doerrs have experience with charter jet operations as executives who used the services, but also as owners of Volare Partners, an entity which was created from the corporate flight department at Leeson Electric.

Sterling will merge with Volare.
"As a start-up venture, Volare was immediately successful but limited in scope," Chris Doerr said. He added, "Scott Air Charter had a larger stable of aircraft, so we felt it would be more expedient to acquire their business rather than grow our own."

By Leeson using its own chartered planes as a way to make the best use of company executives' time via Learjet travel to many a remote area, the company was able to accomplish in a single day what would have taken several days if the travel were restricted to commercial airline schedules.

"Over the years, we owned everything from twin-engine prop planes to midsize business jets," Dan Doerr said.
"Because Leeson had operations and customers throughout North America and even globally, chartered corporate aircraft were an essential tool in running our business efficiently,” he continued.

Charter companies boast of smoother passenger check-ins than larger carriers and a feeling of safety that comes with knowing everyone on a flight—this some say, is due to the wide range of available planes, from a crisp, single engine four-seater to a larger, quieter Boeing 737.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings, Scott Air Charter saw a 40% increase in the number of calls it received. Business travelers were now booking longer interstate flights normally handled by commercial airlines.

Chris Doerr states that Sterling Aviation wants to expand its business in the Fox Valley and northeast Chicago suburbs.

"And there's a whole new group of companies that have formed in the metro Milwaukee area in the last few years that we haven't reached," he added.
The new company, born out of the acquisition of Scott Air Charter by Sterling Aviation, will be comprised of 33 employees, 14 of whom are pilots. It will operate from two facilities at Mitchell International Airport.

Airplane management and maintenance services are an area of new emphasis reasoned Tom Scott, who founded Scott Air Charter in 1983, explaining that he sold the company to raise capital necessary for its growth.

"While we had always provided management and maintenance services to some degree, air charter was clearly our focus," he continued.

The company wants to acquire bigger business jets, Chris Doerr said. "We have customers available for those planes if we had them in our fleet."