After seven quarters of sequential revenue declines, private aviation provider Wheels Up reported a fourth-quarter revenue increase of 5.6 percent quarter over quarter to $204.8 million, according to the company's earnings report, released Tuesday. The company did not host an earnings call.
Still, that figure is lower than the $246.4 million reported in Q4 2023. Full-year 2024 revenue was $792.1 million, a decline of 37 percent year over year.
The seven quarters of revenue decreases is "part of I would say the decline from the peak of Covid and then through the challenges that Wheels Up had late in '23 that led to the investment by Delta and my appointment," Wheels Up CEO George Mattson told BTN. Mattson joined the company as CEO in October 2023.
"This is the first quarter of sequential revenue growth in seven quarters," he said. "With regard to last year, GAAP revenue was lower in Q4 of '24 than Q4 of '23. However, gross bookings were actually a bit higher. We think that's important and meaningful, and that's a stat that we track quite closely."
Fourth-quarter gross bookings increased 9 percent year over year to nearly $313.9 million. That also represents an increase of 23 percent compared with Q3 2024.
"We've been very successful in the past year in growing our profitable charter business, so that is what reflects the improvement year over year in gross bookings versus … revenue," Mattson said.
Wheels Up reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $87.5 million compared with a net loss of $81.1 million a year prior. Its full-year net loss was $339.6 million, down from a net loss of $487.4 million in 2023.
Mattson acknowledged that loss but countered that the company also has "meaningfully expanded our contribution margins, from 1 percent in Q4 of last year, also 1 percent in Q1 of this year to 19.3 percent in Q4 of this year," he said. "We basically drove higher utilization on a smaller fleet."
Flight hours were roughly equal year over year, with 25 percent less aircraft, Mattson said. Wheels Up is in the process of modernizing its fleet. It began flying 18 Embraer Phenom 300 and 300E aircraft in November and plans to begin flying two Bombardier Challenger 300 aircraft on April 1.
Wheels Up also continues to integrate with its key funder Delta Air Lines and has seen ongoing growth in block sales to corporates. "Our corporate sales teams are working very closely together," Mattson said. "We are hitting new highs in terms of bringing on board Delta corporate customers into the Wheels Up ecosystem, which we're very pleased about."
New CFO Named
Wheels Up also named John Verkamp its next CFO, effective March 31. Verkamp has spent more than 20 years of his career at GE or its subsidiaries, including GE Aviation and Avio Aero. Most recently, he was CFO of global services for GE Vernova's Gas Power division.
Wheels Up Interim CFO Eric Cabezas will return to his role of SVP of finance.
RELATED: Wheels Up Q3 performance