During a November
third-quarter earnings call, Wheels Up CEO George Mattson said the company
would target corporate customers through its partnership with Delta Air Lines,
which is one of the company's largest investors. That strategy appears to be
working.
Through use of its charter Air Partner business, which
Wheels Up acquired in 2022, the company is "growing with high-value
corporate customers," Mattson said during a Thursday morning
fourth-quarter earnings call. "Today, corporate flying represents over one
quarter of our FTV, and we expect corporate to be a larger segment of our
business over time as we focus across the business on corporate opportunities
and leverage our strategic partnership with Delta."
FTV is what Wheels Up calls flight transaction value, or the
total amount its customers spend on all flight services. "We believe FTV
better illustrates the true size and breadth of our business, and it allows us
to better highlight the success of our efforts to grow our more profitable charter
business and drive a higher mix of corporate flying," Wheels Up CFO Todd
Smith said.
The company also is "forging a tighter integration with
Delta's sales team" and is seeing strong interest from some of the major
carrier's "largest and most important customers," Mattson said.
"I'm pleased to see corporate customers committing to fly with us. They
represent an increasing percentage of our customer mix and see the value in our
broad capabilities, flexible offerings and the top-notch service we provide.
That's why our pipeline of new business continues to grow."
Wheels Up Q4, FY2023 Metrics
Wheels Up reported fourth-quarter 2023 revenue of $246.4
million, down about 40 percent year over year, with the decrease primarily
driven by the divestiture of its non-core aircraft management business as well
as reduced flight revenue and aircraft sales, according to the company.
Full-year 2023 revenue was down about 21 percent from 2022 to nearly $1.3
billion.
The company's net quarterly loss was more than $81 million,
down from a Q4 2022 loss of nearly $225 million. Wheels Up reported a full-year
2023 loss of more than $487 million compared with a 2022 loss of nearly $556
million.
Reported active members as of Dec. 31, 2023, were nearly
9,950, a 21 percent decline from the more than 12,660 reported a year prior.
Active users for the fourth quarter totaled more than 10,700, down 22 percent
year over year. Live flight legs also declined during the quarter by 26 percent
to just more than 14,000 from more than 19,300 and were down 19 percent for the
full year to nearly 64,500.
Flight revenue per live flight leg, however, remained steady
for the quarter, declining just 1 percent year over year to nearly $14,100. The
metric increased 2 percent for the full year to more than $13,700.
During the fourth quarter, Wheels Up introduced its new Up
for Business corporate member program, sold jointly through the Wheels Up
and Delta sales organizations. Earlier this month, it also announced
several executive changes.
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