The founder of Omni Air International and former Sun Country Airlines CEO Jude Bricker have stepped in to acquire the airline from private equity firm Stonepeak, which was under pressure to quickly divest the carrier in order to complete a $2.53 billion concession agreement covering Chicago’s parking meters, amid objections to the company’s involvement in Trump administration deportation flights.
Air Transport Services Group announced last Monday that it had reached an agreement to sell Omni Air, a passenger charter and outsourced airline provider, to OAI Holdings. The transaction will allow ATSG to concentrate on its cargo-focused portfolio, which includes airline, leasing, maintenance and logistics services companies.
The deal is expected to close during the fourth quarter or in early 2027, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. Financial terms were not disclosed.
No information was provided about OAI Holdings or the investors backing the transaction. According to a news release, the incoming management team has extensive aviation expertise. An ATSG representative declined to provide further details, while Stonepeak did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Stonepeak had been under pressure from Chicago politicians to identify a buyer for Omni Air by Sept. 30 because of the airline’s contract with the Department of Homeland Security. The announcement of the sale did not mention any connection between the transaction and the parking meter concession.
OAI Holdings was registered as a Nevada business on Sept. 22, according to state filings reviewed by FreightWaves, just six days before the Omni Air sale was announced.
The newly formed company has three officers. Among them is Robert Coretz, who founded Omni Air in 1993 and served as its chairman and CEO until 2018, when ATSG acquired the airline for $845 million. Coretz currently sits on the advisory board of Omega Capital Management and is affiliated with Amtra Capital Partners, an aircraft leasing and management company. Both firms are based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Omni Air is also headquartered.
Given Omni Air’s current circumstances, the Coretz-led ownership group likely acquired the carrier for less than the $845 million ATSG paid for it in 2018, reflecting its status as a distressed asset.
Jude Bricker is also an officer of OAI Holdings. He served as CEO of Sun Country Airlines until its sale to Allegiant Travel Co. in May and now sits on Allegiant’s board of directors.
The third partner is Robert Waldo, president of Kaiser-Francis Oil Co., an upstream oil and gas company owned by Kaiser Industries. The company is also based in Tulsa.
OAI Holdings is a private company associated with Rob Coretz, according to the Airline Professionals Association, which represents Omni Air pilots.
The union’s pilots view the return of Omni Air to its founder as a potentially positive development. David Pyers, a pilot and chairman of the Omni Pilots Executive Council, a Teamsters-affiliated Airline Professionals Association unit, said in a message to members posted on the organization’s website that the transaction appeared to represent a “return home” for Omni and its pilots.
Pyers said Omni President David Ray had told him during a phone call that Coretz intended to rebuild, refleet and grow the airline. He also pointed to Coretz’s previous track record as a reason for optimism.
“For now, we view this as a positive development and are cautiously optimistic about what lies ahead,” Pyers added.
Parking meters behind Omni exit
New York-based Stonepeak acquired ATSG last year while the company was still publicly traded. Its decision to sell Omni was not simply an effort to optimize the performance of a portfolio company. According to Chicago City Council officials and local media, the private equity firm faced mounting opposition over Omni’s involvement in controversial deportation flights for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, creating a threat to the lucrative concession agreement with the city of Chicago.
Omni Air has operated long-range deportation flights for many years. The number of those missions increased last year and included flights transporting immigrants to third countries with which they had no previous ties.
More than a dozen members of the Chicago City Council said they would oppose Stonepeak taking operating control of the city’s 36,000 parking meters for $2.53 billion under a 75-year lease unless the private equity firm sold Omni Air.
A Stonepeak official previously told the City Council that the firm disagreed with the administration’s deportation policy and was actively seeking a buyer for Omni.
In mid-September, a group of councillors reached an agreement allowing the parking meter transaction to proceed provided that Omni Air was sold. Stonepeak also agreed to pay Chicago $75 million once the airline sale closes, as well as 5% of its annual net operating income from the parking meter business.
ATSG is the world’s largest lessor of freighter aircraft. Its fleet is dominated by Boeing 767-200 and 767-300 converted freighters, alongside newer Airbus A321 narrowbody and A330-300 medium-widebody aircraft.
The company is best known for owning cargo carriers ABX Air and Air Transport International, which form the backbone of Amazon Air’s domestic air network and also support DHL Express. ATSG also operates a subsidiary providing aircraft maintenance services.
Omni Air, by contrast, focuses on passenger charter and outsourced aviation services. Its customers include commercial and government organizations such as the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and the New England Patriots football team.
The airline also supplies aircraft and operating support to other carriers through ACMI wet leasing. Its services include airline startup assistance, route development and aircraft management.
Omni Air currently operates a fleet of 11 aircraft comprising eight Boeing 767s and three Boeing 777-200 extended-range jets.
Some, if not all, of those aircraft are owned by Cargo Aircraft Management, an ATSG subsidiary that leases them to Omni Air. The announcement of the OAI Holdings transaction does not indicate that the aircraft themselves are part of the sale.
For ATSG, the transaction represents a further shift toward its core cargo operations.
“This agreement marks an important step for ATSG as it reflects the advancement of our long-term strategy of investing in and building out our core air cargo and related aviation services businesses,” said CEO Greg Mays.
“We have been assessing strategic options for Omni for some time given the significant opportunities in air cargo. This transaction allows us to focus our resources more fully on serving that market and related customers.”
Mays added that ATSG was confident OAI Holdings was the appropriate new owner for Omni Air and its customers, citing the group’s decades of aviation experience.
