Ponderosa Aviation Inc.

Ponderosa Aviation Inc., a Subchapter S corporation and for-profit organization headquartered in Safford, Arizona, operates as a prime contractor delivering specialized aerial firefighting, air attack, and air transportation services to federal civilian agencies—primarily the Department of Agriculture's National Interagency Fire Center, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Forest Service. The company competes predominantly under Total Small Business set-asides on its largest IDIQs and receives the bulk of its task orders without set-aside designation on mature contract vehicles; it operates a wholly-owned subsidiary, Clearwater Airco LLC.

Ponderosa Aviation's capability footprint centers on fixed-wing and rotorcraft wildland fire support: air attack operations, air tanker drops, aerial supervision and reconnaissance, helicopter water-bucket work, and transportation of fire personnel and equipment. The company fields a specialized fleet including Air Tractors, Rockwell Turbo Commanders, and Cessna Citations, supported by pilot and ground-crew labor based in Safford. Recent representative prime work includes a $193,998,935 multiple-award national light fixed-wing services IDIQ awarded by NIFC on January 1, 2024, running through December 31, 2033 and set aside for Total Small Business, under which Ponderosa has issued task orders ranging from $17,129 to over $5.8 million; a $21 million single-award BLM air attack contract (March 1, 2024, through April 30, 2029, Total Small Business set-aside); and a $19,492,636 Forest Service national air attack IDIQ (March 30, 2022, through March 31, 2027). The company also holds a GSA Multiple Award Schedule contract for on-demand air charter services and performs occasional air ambulance work for the Bureau of Prisons Federal Correctional Institution in Safford.

Customer concentration is extreme and concentrated in two agencies. The National Interagency Fire Center anchors 65 awards worth $313.1 million in combined potential value (71% of the portfolio), and the BLM Idaho Region holds 66 awards valued at $112.2 million (25% of portfolio). Together these two customer units represent 96% of the vendor's potential value across the $439.9 million portfolio. Departmental Offices and other Interior entities account for the remaining recognized awards by count but trivial value. The 378 awards tracked in the source span 14 distinct agencies, though activity is heavily skewed to these two primary customers and their regional offices.

Vehicle position is anchored to three major IDIQs: the $193.999 billion NIFC national light fixed-wing services multiple-award contract (37 task orders under the primary vehicle identifier), the $21 million BLM air attack single-award contract (26 task orders under 1202SA23T9424, $23.1 million combined potential value), and the $19.5 million Forest Service contract (26 task orders). A legacy $9 million Forest Service air attack IDC (running through May 2024) and the GSA MAS schedule (multiple ordering vehicles) round out the parent vehicles. Ponderosa is 100% prime on all awards in the source and does not subcontract on any tracked federal work—it self-performs all labor and does not engage named subcontractors.

Activity has been volatile. The vendor averaged 27 awards per year in 2022, dropped to 15 in 2023, recovered to 20 in 2024, and shows only one award year-to-date in 2025 (the single award shown is from January 2026, after the recompete cliff window). Twenty-seven awards worth $23.1 million in combined potential value reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and face recompete exposure—a material refresh of the portfolio.

Service Contract Inventory reporting (FY2022–FY2024) shows SCI-reportable invoiced revenue of $40.8 million across 48 prime records, with a trajectory of $14 million (FY2022, 2.7 FTEs), $8.8 million (FY2023, 1.3 FTEs), and $18 million (FY2024, 2.8 FTEs). On federal service contracts captured in SCI, median government-paid hourly rates ran around $3,171 per hour, with the rate spectrum spanning approximately $2,101 per hour at the 10th percentile through $4,143 per hour at the 90th percentile. Ponderosa self-performed all reported hours; no subcontractors appear in the SCI record, and the average sub-hours share across prime contracts is zero percent.

The vendor's entire federal portfolio is built on two mature, stable relationships with NIFC and BLM that predate the most recent award dates in the source—the source itself notes federal contracting experience since 2003. Awards are predominantly delivery orders and purchase orders drawn from long-standing IDIQs rather than new competitive procurements. The category concentration is sharp: 174 awards fall under NAICS 488410 (Nonscheduled Chartered Passenger Air Transportation), 39 under freight charter, and the remainder in forestry support and ambulance services. Place of performance is consistently Safford, Arizona, with air operations staged across western fire bases in Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, and California.