Yingling Aviation expands services with asset purchase

Yingling Aviation has bought the assets of aviation deicing company, ICT Aviation Services, to expand its offerings.

With the purchase, Yingling will provide deicing and anti-icing services for planes at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport.

It has signed primary and secondary contracts with airlines operating at Mid-Continent. And it will provide the services for other general aviation aircraft.

With the contracts, Yingling will deice commercial planes at the airport and provide back-up services for other airlines, said Lonnie Vaughan, Yingling president.

The company will be able to deice planes as large as a Boeing 767, Vaughan said.

It expects significant activity from local and transient traffic this winter, the company said.

“We’re real excited about having this,” Vaughan said. “It adds another service to Yingling that we didn’t have. We want to be your FBO (fixed base operator) of choice 24/7 365 (days a week) even when the weather isn’t optimal.”

In bad weather, when fuel sales are down and fewer planes are flying, its deicing service will be busy.

That part of the business will be active from mid-October to mid-April or later, Vaughan said.

Included in the sale are two trucks equipped with articulating booms and open baskets capable of reaching 43 and 35 feet respectively.

The trucks are equipped with heated 1,800-gallon and 1,500-gallon tanks for glycol deicing fluid and 300-gallon tanks for anti-icing fluid.

Employees have begun the training to provide the service and will be ready when the weather turns cold, Vaughan said.

“We’ll be prepared to offer Type One deicing for both the airlines and general aviation aircraft that have frost, accumulated snow and/or ice after exposure to an extended weather event,” Vaughan said.

Type One deicing fluid is heated to 160 degrees and sprayed on the wings and tail where there is frost, snow or ice.

It also will offer Type Four anti-icing for planes ready for taxi and takeoff and are “on the clock” for departure, he said.

The anti-icing fluid is put on a plane’s control surfaces to keep ice from forming, Vaughan said.

This story was originally published September 8, 2014 at 3:51 PM with the headline "Yingling Aviation expands services with asset purchase."