Apollo Global Management has agreed to acquire a co-controlling stake in Atlantic Aviation from KKR in a transaction that values the private jet operator at nearly $10 billion, the firms announced Thursday. Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC also joined the deal as a co-investor, according to a person close to the matter.
The deal further evidence of the growing divide between the spending power of the ultra-rich and lower- and middle-income groups, according to Jim Corridore, lead research analyst of industrials at PitchBook.
“This trend plays into the K-shaped economy, with the wealthier doing much better and using things like private jets,” he said.
Atlantic Aviation is a fixed-base private aviation company with locations at more than 100 airports in North America. The company offers fueling, aircraft maintenance, hangar leasing, and other ground services, according to its website.
KKR first acquired the company from Macquarie Infrastructure in 2021 for nearly $4.5 billion in a mix of cash and debt.
Atlantic isn’t the only FBO operator PE has bet on. In 2021, Blackstone, Global Infrastructure Partners, and Bill Gates’s Cascade Investment teamed up on a $4.73 billion take-private deal for Signature Aviation, one of Atlantic’s largest competitors.
The Apollo-KKR deal adds to the rising count of PE-driven deals in the aerospace sector. In Q2, the number of PE deals in aerospace and defense doubled compared with the same period last year, according to PitchBook’s latest Aerospace and Defense report.
Still, the Apollo-KKR deal is an anomaly in a sector increasingly dominated by smaller deals. Deal value fell to $6.5 billion in Q1 from $11.1 billion in Q1, as defense contractors dominated larger deals.
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Private equity’s appetite for private planes has only broadened over the past year.
In October 2025, KKR led a $320 million preferred equity and debt financing package alongside a group of large family offices to launch BOND, a startup that offers fractional ownership of private aircraft.
Also on Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Vista Global Holding, a United Arab Emirates-based private aviation company backed by private equity firms RRJ Capital and Rhône Group, is exploring a $1 billion public listing in Europe.
In June, Bain Capital launched JB Aircraft Finance, a corporate jet financing and leasing company that provides financing and leasing solutions to owners, operators, OEMs, and brokers of private planes.
“There are a lot of private planes out there. The market for Gulfstream and other corporate jets and private jets is large. These planes need servicing, refueling, de-icing and everything else just like a commercial aircraft does,” Corridore said.
Apollo declined PitchBook’s request for further comment.
