Omni Air Transport celebrates 30 years in business

May 16, 2013
Celebrating 30 years in business, Omni has a fleet of nine aircraft, ranging from the Beechcraft Baron to the Embraer Legacy 600

May 16--Dan Burnstein still gets up in the air on occasion, including an 11-destination trip that took more than a week late last year.

"I still put my name on the list sometimes when the destination looks good," said the president of Omni Air Transport. "I love flying. It's the reason I got into this business."

With as little as 90 minutes' notice, Burnstein and his pilots at Omni can be in the air, flying to such places as the Caribbean or New York, usually ferrying Tulsa-area business owners or other executives.

Now celebrating 30 years in business, Omni has a fleet of nine aircraft, ranging from the three-passenger, twin-propeller Beechcraft Baron BE58 to the luxury Embraer Legacy 600, a top-of-the-class charter jet with room for 13 passengers.

Business has taken off in every sense for Omni during the last decade as the energy industry has grown in Tulsa, and the carrier has found a niche in quick-turnaround trips and drive-to-the door convenience.

Omni Air Transport began operations in 1983 hauling local executives and "high net worth" clients to destinations across the country.

The enterprise split into two companies in 1993, with Omni Air International, a private carrier service, operating a fleet of private Boeing 767s and 777s. Dan Burnstein's father, Stan, is still chairman of that company, but Omni Air Transport and Omni Air International operate separately.

Stan Burnstein started Omni Air with a single plane, and expanded it to three in the early 2000s. Dan, who started as a pilot in 1989, took over the company as president.

The charter company, Omni Air Transport, now has a staff of 30, including nine pilots and four maintenance workers, who do everything from booking flights to fixing the planes on the ground.

Omni's flagship aircraft, the Legacy 600, is actually a plane it leases from an outside owner.

"It's a way for owners to cut down on their costs," Dan Burnstein said. "It's available to them when they need it, but we also use it to fly other passengers."

The company has a similar agreement for its two Learjet aircraft.

In all, pilots at the company logged about 3,000 hours of flying last year, and Omni Air Transport recently received certification for worldwide travel, expanding from its previous license to fly only in the Western Hemisphere.

Ron Smith, director of business development, said Omni has also been expanding its contract work, taking on relief flights for other charter companies across the country when their planes are tied up in maintenance.

"It's probably about a third of our work now," he said.

Omni Air Transport operates two hangars at Tulsa International Airport, where customers can drive their vehicles into a 3-year-old facility and walk right onto one of Omni's jets. Planes can be up in the air five minutes after they are boarded, Smith said.

"You can skip the security lines, and you don't have to check in your baggage," he said. "And we can fly to a lot of the smaller airports in western Oklahoma or anywhere else that you can't fit a commercial aircraft into."