The private equity owners of niche cargo operator AirNet Systems named George Gonzalez, the former interim CEO of failed airline Gemini Air Cargo, chief executive of AirNet.

AirNet owner Bayside Capital also owned Gemini and shut down that cargo carrier this month after failing to find new investors for that foundering airline.

At Columbus, Ohio-based AirNet, Gonzalez takes over as CEO from Bruce D. Parker, who will remain on the carrier's board of directors.

Bayside took over control of AirNet in June, about the time the firm took Gemini into its second bankruptcy protection filing in just two years.

At AirNet, Gonzalez will oversee an airline business that is adjusting to large structural changes in its core market. Because of growing acceptance of electronic check clearance, the company has declining demand in its main business moving bank checks around the country for clearance.

Parker has been managing a move from those bank services toward express services, but the shift has put a financial strain on the carrier. AirNet's bank services revenue declined 13 percent last year and another 15 percent in the first quarter, and the operating profit fell by more than half in the first quarter, to $983,000.

Gonzalez, 48, has been a Bayside board member of AirNet since June.

He also has held senior positions with Miami-based Centurion Air Cargo and DHL.