Private Equity Firm Halts ICE Deportation Flights Operated by Omni Air International

Omni Air International has stopped carrying ICE detainees on international flights, including trips to countries other than their own. The change ends the airline’s role in those ICE deportation flights.

The halt is attributed to a Private Equity Firm, but the firm has not been identified. Its reason for the decision is also unknown.

The effective date and the specific routes affected remain unclear. Omni Air has stopped international flights carrying ICE detainees, but the available reporting does not describe the effect on its wider operations.

The firm behind the decision is still unidentified

No statement explaining the halt has come from Omni Air, its owner, ICE or the Department of Homeland Security. The attribution to a private-equity firm comes without details identifying the firm or describing how it made the decision.

An earlier flight offers a glimpse of the people caught up in the system, but does not establish when the halt began. Omni Air flight 3747 left Alexandria, Louisiana, on October 23, 2025, with Chanthila Souvannarath aboard.

Souvannarath, 45, was born in a refugee camp in Thailand to Laotian parents who resettled in the United States before his first birthday. After losing permanent resident status following prison time for domestic violence and illegal firearm possession, he sought to establish a citizenship claim through his father, who had been naturalized years earlier. His eventual outcome is not given.

That flight predates the reported shutdown by more than a year. It does not show when the halt took effect, which routes stopped, or what happened in Souvannarath’s case.

Akron-Canton faces a separate cutoff for ICE flights

A different change affects ground handling at Akron-Canton Airport. Airport Vice President Lisa Dalpiaz said in an email that Avflight had notified ICE flight operator AEG Fuels it would end service there on November 30, 2026.

“Akron-Canton Airport (CAK) has been made aware that Avflight has notified the ICE flight operator, AEG Fuels, of its decision to discontinue providing ground-handling services at CAK effective November 30, 2026. ICE flights will cease from CAK beyond that date.”

The airport said the flights will stop operating from there after the cutoff. The decision concerns Avflight’s local ground-handling work, not the unidentified firm linked to Omni Air’s international flights.

Since the operation began at Akron-Canton at the end of April, detainees have been bused almost daily to Avflight hangars on West Airport Drive. They boarded jets operated by Eastern Air Express, Air Wisconsin and Global X, usually bound for Alexandria, Louisiana. The change does not affect commercial passenger service. Airport officials said the loss from unpaid landing fees is insignificant.

The next airport for those flights remains unclear

The airport where the ICE flights will operate after November 30, 2026, has not been announced. Its announcement establishes when flights will cease at Akron-Canton, but not whether they will continue elsewhere or where.

The Omni Air halt also has no stated start date or route list. No outcome has been provided for individual detainees who were previously transported on its international flights.