Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- Bjorn’s Corner: Air Transport’s route to 2050. Part 27. June 20, 2025
- Pontifications: A Personal Note June 19, 2025
- Airbus books 142 firm orders as Boeing retracts from the Paris Air Show June 19, 2025
- AIN Media Group Agrees to Acquire Leeham News & Analysis June 17, 2025
- Five for Five: Air India crash points to systemic problems at Boeing that CEO Ortberg must fix June 15, 2025
Pontifications: A Personal Note
By Scott Hamilton
June 19, 2025, © Leeham News, Paris: The big news for LNA at this Paris Air Show this week had nothing to do with aerospace companies.
On Tuesday, it was jointly announced by AIN Media Group and Leeham Co LLC, parent of LNA, that AIN is acquiring LNA. We expect the transaction to close next month, awaiting documentation from the lawyers.
Leeham Co LLC and its other business, Leeham Consulting, remains with my partner, Bjorn Fehrm and me. We also remain with LNA. For the first time since 1989, I will report to a boss.
Talk about a mental adjustment.
An exciting future
AIN and LNA are truly excited about this deal. Bjorn and I are each 74 years old (he’s the older one), so at long, overdue last, we are taking our first steps toward retirement. For me, this is my second business created and sold. I co-founded Linkraven Ltd. In 1989.
This British company was the parent of Commercial Aviation Report, Commercial Aviation Value Report, and Commercial Aviation Events. My partner and I sold Linkraven 10 years later, and I founded Leeham Co LLC as a consulting company. LNA came along in 2008 because I just couldn’t keep from writing about the industry.
Bjorn joins LNA; we join AIN
Bjorn and I hooked up in 2013, and we’ve been together ever since.
AIN Media Group was founded 50 years ago by Wilson Leach. His son David and daughter Jennifer are with the business today, and Wilson at age 78 has stepped back but remains active in the business. AIN’s president, Ruben Kempeneer, joined in 2022.
AIN focuses primarily on business aviation and will use LNA for growth into the commercial aviation arena. For LNA, aside from our personal exit strategy, we’re excited about tapping into AIN’s far greater resources to strengthen our commercial aviation reporting as we help expand AIN’s overall business strategy.
As you can imagine, both companies are so gratified by the outpouring of congratulations, kind words and warmth expressed online and at the air show as we encountered face-to-face fans of both outlets, friends and business associates.
LNA lives on
For me personally, I’m excited that the legacy of LNA will live on with AIN. LNA’s team for writers will also make the transition to continue with AIN. From the outward perspective, readers won’t see any change, except expansion, of LNA’s business plan and reporting.
LNA has worked with teams of writers over the years. The quality and scope of our reporting would not have been possible without them. I’m so proud of their contributions.
Thank you all very much for those who have been supporters, collaborators and subscribers over the years. And thanks for your accolades, support and encouragement as we transition to AIN’s ownership.
Footnote: Bjorn and I have a lot of stories we gathered at the Paris Air Show that will be published in the coming weeks.
My new book, The Rise and Fall of Boeing, and The Way Back, will be published in September. It is a sequel of sorts to Air Wars, The Global Combat Between Airbus and Boeing.
Thank you Scott.
And he/she may well be younger than you. Double adjustment!
Hah! Just about everybody is now younger than we are!
” Hah! Just about everybody is now younger than we are!
Well not everybody – got you beat by more than a decade !!😎
Best of wishes and thank you for your attention to detail and attempts to
keep the records complete and readable..
Enjoy y0ur retirement !!!
Don
Congratulations Scott & Bjorn. I can’t imagine you giving up completely on aviation reporting ever, but responsibilities will be taken over. I think I’ve been on LNA from early on, the quality of the reporting has always been on a high level.
You are both solid men. Thank you so much!
Very glad to see LNA’s performance has found its perfect match with AIN and the legacy lives on, so my very best wishes to both teams, especially now that they become one.
Personally, I am very proud of my experience with Commercial Aviation Report as a freelancer.
Retiring can be fantastic if and when you see your decades’ worth of work has taken you a long distance and the newer generation is capable of and willing to extend it. The conditions are there so ENJOY the new phase!
+1
Thanks to you and your whole team for all your dedication and service to the Aerospace community.
I am delighted to hear that you have secured the future of LNA and it looks very bright indeed!
Scott, we are the same age! All the best!
Congratulations! Looking forward to more posts by Bjorn and Scott.
Wish you the very best for your upcoming book Scott. Sounds really interesting, especially for aviation buffs.
PS (for fellow readers): Check out our latest book on Commercial Aviation – “Outflank, Outfox, Outmaneuver: Disruptive Strategies, Tactics and Gamechanger Market Moves in Commercial Aviation – The Jet Age” available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Outflank-Outfox-Outmaneuver-Disruptive-Strategies-ebook/dp/B0F9YYTFRZ
I’ve always appreciated the high quality and thoroughness of your reporting on all the ins and outs of the airline industry. Your straight forward writing style plus the depth of your contacts have given me a lot of insight into the business and I thank you for that. Bjorn’s various series on all aspects of how airplanes work have been fantastic. I love those and I can’t thank him enough for writing them. I’ve also appreciated the clean look of your website. Its great visiting a professional site that hasn’t been polluted by the likes of Google Analytics.
Hopefully nothing changes and your new boss appreciates what he bought and doesn’t try and “improve” it.
I enjoyed your first book and am looking forward to your second.
Full on congratulations with no reservations.
Not quite Scott of Bjorn age wise but all too close (a year). I had not realized Bjorn was a fellow geezer!
I quit work 6 years ago. I loved what I was doing but sadly the passion had been ground out by management, mini Boeing. The worst was to see 35 years direct and a life of other aspects that applied just disappear.
You guys are getting that fantastic hand off for what you created , that is way cool as we would have said back in my somewhat mis spent youth. Having a chance to guide it along while getting some well deserved time to get out and smell something other than Jet A.
I have one request, if the format is going to change, let us know so we can brace ourselves. Leeham has been my morning go to site for some time and I suspect many others as well.
One of the delights of the Internet has been the chance to pursue interests and get question answered in a number of fields. Leeham has brought a focus into an area of Aviation of huge interest as I grew up with it.
just a side note:
Aviation in Alaska is truly a way of life and more so for me, age two (not that I remember) my dad was an FAA mechanic and it was all about in support of Aviation. You need to visit Alaska to realize how critical it is for the citizens.
Anchorage is no longer the Air Crossroads of the World, we continue to be one of the top 5 freight airports in the whole world.
Maybe the one bit of data resonates, its 2450 Road Miles from Anchorage to Seattle (so basically the rest of the US) that is how far we are displaced. So the Major Air links are our only realistic links to the US and the small air links out bush communities depend on.
By far the best, balanced and cohesive of all the aviation sites – just keep up the brilliant work!
Nice to hear Scott! I’ve always enjoyed your writing — good to know you are still going to be out and about!
Not older, just better
to Scott , Bjorn and all readers
Congratulations Scott. AIN is the lucky one to have snagged the work of your brains, sweat, tears and connections. Looking forward to reading your new book and wishing you the best.
Congrats Scott and Bjorn! And thanks for the fantastic reading 🙂
ps I know which book I’m buying later this year!