Auction Raises Several Million for Bankrupt Avantair
There were nearly 900 lots up for sale at the Avantair bankruptcy auction on January 10, and items for sale included Piaggio Avanti control surfaces and interior components.

A no-reserve auction held on Friday in a warehouse just a mile from Avantair’s former Clearwater (Fla.) Airport headquarters raised a “couple of million” dollars for the estate of the bankrupt fractional aircraft company, according to auctioneer Starman Bros. Auctions. Citing rules under bankruptcy laws, auctioneer president Steve Starman told AIN that he couldn’t provide a more detailed account of the funds raised.

The auction, which lasted 12.5 hours, included almost 900 lots, comprising more than 10,000 individual bits and pieces. Items sold ranged from office furniture to avionics to aircraft parts/components to shop tools to aircraft tugs.

Notable items included a custom motorcycle (complete with an Avantair logo stitched into the leather seat) that sold for $5,000, a Piaggio Avanti fuselage that went for $6,000 and a Cirrus II flight simulator that sold for $800. The highest winning bid for any single item was for a new, and complete, Aircell ATG 5000 datacom system, which sold for $45,000.

There were more than 250 bidders at the auction–a crowd that included Piaggio Avanti operators looking for specific parts, avionics and aircraft parts resellers, Avantair creditors, former Avantair employees and aircraft services company owners.