Your business aviation hot takes, served fresh.

April 8th, 2026 | Season 3 Episode 14 Companion

The man running one of aviation's most essential companies sat down with us to break it all down.

If you have ever fueled an airplane, you have almost certainly touched AvFuel, whether you knew it or not. Nearly 1,500 employees, several billion in annual revenue, more than 1,000 on-airport refueling trucks, and a family-owned structure. C.R. Sincock, who recently stepped into the president role after years of building into it alongside his father Craig, joined us for a wide-open conversation covering fuel economics, Middle East geopolitics, FBO consolidation, and why the industry needs to get better at fighting its own PR battle.

Listen to the full episode here

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How AvFuel actually works.

Most people know the truck shows up at the airplane. What C.R. walked us through is everything that happens before that moment. AvFuel sits in a downstream-to-midstream position, meaning they purchase refined product, hold space on major pipelines, store fuel in bulk terminals at pipeline endpoints, and then move it to airports via rail and truck. They are not drilling the oil or running the refinery, but they are doing nearly everything in between. And at a fleet of 1,000-plus on-airport refueling trucks, the operation is one of the largest of its kind in the world.

How the family turned a five-person Michigan distributor into a multi-billion dollar company.

Craig Sincock acquired the business in the 1980s when it was a small Phillips Petroleum jobber covering a couple of Midwest states. He layered on distribution deals with additional oil companies in other regions, then made a pivotal acquisition of Pride Refining's aviation division out of Texas. The bigger strategic move was deciding to consolidate all of those regional relationships under a single AvFuel brand rather than continuing to operate as a patchwork of different oil company proxies. That was the moment AvFuel became a brand in its own right, not just a company name.

Why PE hasn't gotten the keys.

Yes, investment bankers and private equity firms come knocking. C.R. was candid about that. But the answer has consistently been no, and the reasoning is straightforward: the business generates strong cash flow, the family does not need outside capital to fund operations or growth, and the brand carries real cultural weight internally and for their family. C.R. put it simply. At a certain point, the business becomes part of who you are.

What is actually driving jet fuel prices right now.

The Strait of Hormuz conflict has introduced a sustained war premium into global energy markets, but C.R. flagged something more telling in the data: the back end of the futures curve is now creeping upward. That means traders are not just pricing in near-term risk. They are pricing in elevated costs well into the medium term. His expectation is that prices stay elevated relative to early 2026 levels for at least six months to a year, even if active hostilities wind down, because damage to energy infrastructure in the region takes time to repair, maritime insurance rates remain high, and shipping disruptions have knock-on effects that outlast the headlines.

On FBO consolidation.

C.R. gave a measured take here that is worth sitting with. Some capital entering the industry is better than none. Investment has raised standards and enabled longer-term thinking. But the risk of going too far is real: as acquisition prices get bid up, the only lever to service that investment is fee increases, and fee increases at a certain level generate operator complaints, which generate regulatory scrutiny. His framing was simple: business aviation does not want more attention from regulators than it already has.

The PR battle we cannot afford to lose.

When asked about the biggest risk in the business aviation supply chain, C.R. went somewhere that might surprise people. Not geopolitics, not fuel supply. The industry's ability to demonstrate its value to the public and to policymakers. Business aviation is an easy target. The people who fly tend to be financially successful, and that attracts criticism. C.R.'s point was that the industry needs to be proactive about telling the workforce story, the economic story, and the community story, because the alternative is being defined by its critics.

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Jessie’s Links:
Private Aviation Safety Alliance
FlyVizor
LinkedIn

Preston’s Links:
Prestige Aircraft Finance
Private Jet Insider (Newsletter)
LinkedIn
X (Formerly Known as Twitter)
FastJets