Charter carrier Key Air is preparing to ramp up flights from Waterbury-Oxford Airport and other small regional airports in its plan to expand service nationally, authorities say.
Key’s blueprint is the linchpin to a financial restructuring in which global real estate mogul Barry Sternlicht and a Michigan equity investor have assumed controlling equity stakes in Key Air.
Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group, with offices in Greenwich, and Rizvi Traverse Management LLC, of Birmingham, Mich., have recapitalized Key Air, both investors announced Thursday. Detailed financial terms were not disclosed.
“This transaction will allow Key Air to grow and leverage our existing platform while assuring continued financial stability,” said Key Air CEO Bob Marinace.
The 25-year-old carrier’s business model relies on three fixed bases at less congested airports, such as Waterbury-Oxford, that are in or near major travel markets, such as metro New York and Boston. It also has bases outside Minneapolis-St. Paul and in Fort Pierce, Fla., near Palm Beach.
Key Air’s private terminals also include Los Angeles.
“We are excited about participating in the next chapter of Key Air’s growth …” Sternlicht said in a statement.
Starwood Capital’s $21 billion in assets are mostly global real estate, including offices, shopping centers, housing, hotels and resorts. It also has industrial assets, including energy.
Last November, its Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide unit accepted incentives from the state of Connecticut to move headquarters and about 800 jobs to Stamford from New York by January 2012.
Rizvi Traverse, a little-known equity firm co-founded in 2004 by Suhail Rizvi and John A. Giampetroni, made headlines in July when it backed Playboy magazine Hugh Hefner’s pending effort to buy out the magazine for about $185 million and take it private.
Among its holdings, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a movie production company and a unit that finances independent filmmakers.
