Founded

1991

Headquarters

Annapolis, Maryland

Key People

Don Bass, Bob Rabbitt, and Chris Ellis, co-founders and managing partners

Number of Employees

25

Phone Number

(410) 573-1515

Website

Avpro

Avpro

One of the world’s largest international business aircraft brokerage, leasing, and acquisition firms with gross annual sales of more than $1.5 billion, Avpro averages 90 to 100 corporate and utility aircraft transactions per year.

After finishing college, middle school classmates Bob Rabbitt and Chris Ellis began working together in the late 1980s in the aircraft sales business, where they met industry veteran Don Bass. Ellis had obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in petroleum engineering from Marietta College, Rabbitt had earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Maryland, and Bass had a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of New Hampshire.

In 1991, the three co-workers decided to launch their own aircraft brokerage in Maryland. Since none of them had an aviation background per se, they looked at aircraft analytically as assets, without any pilot-based bias toward one type over another. 

A decade after its founding, Avpro signed a strategic partnership agreement in 2012 with Asian Sky Group, a business aviation consulting group tailored to serve private aviation markets in China and the Asia-Pacific region. The agreement allowed for cross-referrals, joint marketing, and placement of employees in Asia. 

In 2013, Avpro acquired Paris-based Heli-Asset to create a helicopter division headed by the French company’s founder, Emmanuel Dupuy. The next year, the division’s line of credit increased from $100 million to $120 million to provide additional capital for helicopter acquisitions. In 2017, Avpro entered into eight exclusive remarketing agreements for helicopters ranging from the Airbus EC135 to the Sikorsky S-92A for clients in the U.S. and the Middle East. 

The company became a certified National Aircraft Resale Association (now International Aircraft Dealers Association) broker in 2016, one of only 98 companies to adhere to the association’s 14-point code of ethics and one of approximately 60 brokers to pass its rigorous certification process. At the time, NARA broker/dealer members accounted for approximately 5 percent of the industry’s 1,000 aircraft brokers worldwide, yet they conducted more than half of the preowned jet sales transactions. Ellis became a member of IADA’s board of directors in 2020.

As of July 2021, Avpro had regional offices in Portland, Maine; Savannah, Georgia; Kansas City, Kansas; and Paris.