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| Founded | 1993; 33 years ago (1993) | ||||||
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| AOC # | CNMA334B[1] | ||||||
| Fleet size | 15 | ||||||
| Destinations | Worldwide | ||||||
| Parent company | Air Transport Services Group (ATSG) | ||||||
| Headquarters | Tulsa International Airport Tulsa, Oklahoma | ||||||
| Key people | David Ray (President) | ||||||
| Website | www | ||||||
Omni Air International, LLC is a United Statescharter airline headquartered in Hangar 19 on the grounds ofTulsa International Airport inTulsa, Oklahoma, United States.[2] It specializes in passenger charter flights andAircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance (ACMI)wet leasing.[3] Omni Air International is a member of theCivil Reserve Air Fleet as a long-range international carrier.[4] The airline is certified underFAA Part 121 and holdsIATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) registration.
Omni Air International cooperates withImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in controversial (sometimes termed "high-risk")deportations under the first and second Donald Trump administrations.[5][6] Omni Air International has been characterized as engaging inprice gouging over its role in deportation flights,[5] and has been accused by critics of facilitating human rights violations by the Trump administration.[6]
Omni Air was purchased by the private equity firmStonepeak in April 2025.[6]
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The airline was established under the nameOmni Air Express and started operations in March 1993 with aBoeing 727 freighter aircraft. In 1993, Omni started its Part 121 air carrier operations withBoeing 727F equipment in the narrow-body cargo market. Customers include integrated shipping companies such asBAX Global,DHL,Emery Worldwide, andUPS.[7]
In 1997, the company changed its name to Omni Air International and launched passenger operations withDC-10s (including N270AX, the last DC-10 ever built).
In 1998, the company sold itsBoeing 727F fleet to focus exclusively on its growing passenger business. From 1998 to 2000, the company acquired three second-hand long-rangeMcDonnell Douglas DC-10-30s and began providing international charter service to wholesale companies and cruise lines as well as wet leaseAircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance (ACMI) for other airlines and theUS Department of Defense.
In April 2003, theBoeing 757-200 passenger aircraft was added to its fleet. The 757-200 fleet was approved for extended range over water operations (ETOPS). Boeing 757s were flown on vacation routes between Las Vegas (LAS) and Honolulu (HNL) year-round. They also flew between Minneapolis/St.Paul (MSP) and Cancun (CUN), Cozumel (CZM), Mazatlan (MZT) and Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo (ZIH), Mexico and to Montego Bay, Jamaica (MBJ) year round and between Boston (BOS) and Aruba (AUA), Netherlands Antilles seasonally.
Boeing 767-300ER aircraft were added starting in August 2009, andBoeing 777-200ER aircraft began operating in April 2011. That same year, theBoeing 767-200ER was added to the fleet. The B-767s and DC-10s were operated on Department of Defense flights between the US and Kuwait (KWI) and between the US and overseas bases in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East and Central Asia. Omni also occasionally operates sub-service/wet-lease flights for foreign airlines from Canada, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia, and Bolivia.
In 2011, Omni retired theMcDonnell Douglas DC-10s from the fleet and received itsIATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) registration. In 2012, Omni retired theBoeing 757-200.
On October 2, 2018,Air Transport Services Group (ATSG) announced it would acquire Omni subject to regulatory approval.[8] On November 9, ATSG completed its acquisition of Omni for $845 million.[9]
In September 2019, Omni aided in the repatriation of British citizens after the collapse of the UK'sThomas Cook Airlines. The airline was contracted by theCivil Aviation Authority under the instruction of the British government to operate rescue flights returning stranded Thomas Cook passengers to the UK.[10]
In 2020, Omni Air obtained $67 million in coronavirus relief aid, as well as a $77.65 million contract with theTrump administration's Department of Defense for "international charter airlift services."[11]
In August 2021,U.S. PresidentJoe Biden activated theCivil Reserve Air Fleet, utilizing 18 aircraft from six commercial airlines to ferry evacuees ofAfghanistan from interim waystations throughout the Middle East and Europe. According to thePentagon, the activation involves four aircraft fromUnited Airlines; three aircraft each fromAmerican Airlines,Atlas Air,Delta Air Lines, and Omni Air; and two fromHawaiian Airlines.[12]
Omni Air International has operated deportation flights under contract withU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
A 2019 report byQuartz stated that the airline was the sole provider willing to conduct certain deportation missions deemed "high-risk," and raised concerns about elevated costs for such services.[13] According toUniversity of Washington professor Angelina Godoy, who tracked human rights violations on ICE deportation flights, the reports of abuse on Omni Air were "significantly worse" than reports on other ICE Air charters.[14]
Omni Air planes were used to deport Cameroonian refugees fleeing persecution relating to theAnglophone Crisis.[15] Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have concluded that the refugees were likely to be in danger if they returned to Cameroon, and that the deportation constitutedrefoulement, a violation of international law.[15] Several of the deportees were, upon their return to Cameroon, held in squalid conditions, tortured and raped.[16]
Use of "WRAP" devices tohogtie deportee onboard Omni Air flights was confirmed by ICE.[17] In 2017, a plane deporting people to Somalia encountered a mechanical break that saw the plane diverted toDakar, Senegal. Deportees were reportedly left shackled for 48 hours with little food, and when the plane's lavatories overflowed with human waste, the deportees had to urinate in a bottle or on themselves. The flight subsequently returned to the US with the deportees still on board.[17]
Omni became the target of activists pushingAmazon to divest their 20% stake in the airline's parent companyATSG, which supplies charters forPrime Air.[14]
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As of August 2025[update], Omni Air International operates the following aircraft:[18]
| Aircraft | Total | Orders | Passenger Configurations[19][better source needed] | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B | Y | Total | ||||
| Boeing 767-200ER[20] | 3 | — | 18 | 195 | 213 | |
| Boeing 767-300ER | 9 | — | 12 | 193 | 205 | Includes two aircraft owned by theNew England Patriots.[21] |
| 24 | 224 | 248 | ||||
| 19 | 222 | 241 | ||||
| 44 | 203 | 247 | ||||
| 88 | 0 | 88 | ||||
| Boeing 777-200ER | 3 | — | 0 | 381 | 381 | |
| Total | 15 | — | ||||
On 28 August 2020, an Omni Air International Boeing 767 (registered N423AX) operated a flight between Kabul, Afghanistan and Washington, United States with a scheduled refueling stop at Bucharest, Romania. During landing at the Romanian capital, the aircraft's left mainlanding gear collapsed. The aircraft skidded along the runway andevacuation slides were used by the 80 passengers to escape without injury.[22]
Romania's SIAA found that the cause of the accident was a fracture in the outer cylinder of the left-hand main landing gear. During maintenance in 2015, the inner diameter cylinder was subjected to repeated cycles of chrome plating then grinding and polishing. The grinding machine was operating outside of input parameters, which caused excessive heat generation through friction, leading to heat damage to the base metal of the cylinder.[23]
Media related toOmni Air International at Wikimedia Commons
