Omni Air International

The scale of air passenger demand by the DOD is significant enough that whole charter airlines have arisen that are significantly, if not entirely, financially reliant on operating Patriot Express flights on behalf of the government.

Atlas Air, National Airlines, and Omni Air International among them.

With the goal of minimizing travel costs for the DOD, but also enabling staff outside of combat zones to travel home more frequently on a discretionary basis, the Patriot Express program lowers the relative distance between American military bases and the mainland United States and vice versa, even to the extent of allowing a wider range of pets on board than commercial airlines.

The military enables this relative connectivity by operating a space available system.

So...

You know, one of the things that we have all talked about as I've been on here is this airline, Omni Air International.

It's one of the longtime ICE charters.

And they were the only large jet carrier that would do ICE removal flights to Asia and Africa.

Uh, if there's any future sale of the parking meter, uh, system to another party, uh, we would receive 2% of a transfer fee there.

Uh, and finally, a commitment from Stone Peak Partners to sell, uh, or divest in Omni Air International, the charter airline they own, uh, which has worked with the Department of Homeland Security on deportation flights.

In terms of what the financial side of that actually looks like, 'cause those are a lot of percentages, I think the main things if you look at that 75 million plus a 5% share of operating in- income on a go-forward basis, there was some back and forth of, like, exactly what the operating income works out to, but I think most of the analysis I've seen puts it somewhere in, like, the 100 to 150 million range is the present value of what that works out to.

Uh, I think Alderman Bill Conway had it pegged at right around 140 million, and our analysis put it broadly in that same ballpark.

But one, you know, it is very interesting.

And also to see how badly Stone Peak wanted this particular deal, they were the owners of Omni Air International.

And a group of alders were pushing back, primarily the Latino caucus, but not just them, were pushing back against the sale at first.

And they agreed to sell Omni Air.

The city is set to get a $75 million transfer fee, plus 5% of future income and 2% of the sale price if the system is ever sold again.

A subsidiary of Stone Peak announced it will sell Omni Air, a company that has provided deportation flights for the Trump administration.

Supporters call it a big win for taxpayers after the system was sold in 2008 for $1.15 billion and a 75-year lease agreement.

[laughs]

The main sweetener is the $75 million payment that will come the city's way after the sale closes at the end of the year, if it does as expected, of course.

Also, the firm that purchased the meters for $2.53 billion agreed to sell Omni Air.

That airline had carried out long-haul deportations for the Trump administration's mass deportation effort.

Several older people, more than a dozen, said they would not vote to approve the sale unless that happened.