George J. Priester Aviation has entered into an agreement to acquire aircraft management and charter providers Omni Air Transport of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Sunrise Jets of Westhampton, New York. The transactions will add more than a dozen aircraft to Priester’s managed fleet and strengthen its nationwide presence.

The additions will bring the company into the US South Central and Northeast regions, complementing existing Priester Aviation, Mayo Aviation and Hill Private Aviation bases in the Midwest, Rocky Mountain West and Southeast.

“We’re proud to bring these longstanding private aviation providers into the George J. Priester family,” says chairman Andy Priester. “Both share our culture of customer-focused, local service-oriented management and charter that we have committed to deliver for decades.”

Each company has been serving its market for more than 40 years, with ARGUS ratings and Wyvern Wingman certification among other third-party accolades. Together they will contribute 13 additional managed aircraft, with at least eight available for premium charter service, including eastern Long Island. Aircraft include a Bombardier Challenger 350, Challenger 604, Cessna Citation Sovereign and XLS models, Learjets 40, 45, 60 and 75, and a HondaJet.

“It’s important to us that the brands we bring on have been great advocates for aviation futures themselves,” Priester adds. “The fact that they’ve been a long-term regional destination employer demonstrates that they’ve done it the right way.”

Over the past two years the company has strengthened its core processes and management structures, and introduced technology to optimise operations at its Priester Aviation, Mayo Aviation and Hill Private Aviation bases. Once the new brands come on board, the managed fleet will exceed 90 aircraft, supported by tailored crewing, flight operations and maintenance coordination.