Wheels Up's partnership with Delta Air Lines, one of its key investors, for corporate sales seems to be paying off.
Wheels Up first-quarter corporate membership fund sales increased 13 percent year over year and represented nearly 40 percent of total membership fund sales, according to a Thursday investor letter from Wheels Up CEO George Mattson, who added that new corporate accounts are the fastest-growing customer segment in the business.
Overall first-quarter revenue, however, declined 10 percent year over year.
"A significant factor driving this growth is the traction we're seeing from joint selling initiatives with Delta," Mattson said in an email to BTN. "While we don't break out corporate revenue as a standalone line item, this customer segment is a significant contributor to overall performance—particularly through higher-value fund deposits and more consistent flying behavior."
Delta and other investors in August 2023 propped up Wheels Up with a $500 million lifeline.
In addition, for the summer, Wheels Up and Delta are partnering to offer Delta One premium-class customers flying into Athens, Barcelona, Naples, Nice and Rome transitions to private jet flights and helicopter transfers from Wheels Up to their final destinations.
Wheels Up also noted that demand has remained resilient, but the company is "watching the broader environment closely and managing with discipline," Mattson said, adding that one of the carrier's biggest advantages is the flexibility of its fleet transition. "We're not locked into large orders—we're adding aircraft gradually, which allows us to align capacity to demand as conditions evolve."
Wheels Up, Delta Partnership Update
Also on Thursday, Wheels Up and Delta held a joint "fireside chat" to discuss the company's partnership for corporate customers. Wheels Up chief commercial officer Dave Harvey said the company has 1,000 corporate customers, more than half of which are small to midsize businesses.
Delta SVP of global sales Bob Somers said that the sales teams between the two carriers now are integrated and their technologies "talk to each other." He added that there are three focus areas in 2025 for the Delta-Wheels Up partnership: Charters and growing their sales with corporate customers, targeting travel agencies and messaging to specific verticals, such as sports and universities, entertainment production, private wealth and private equity.
Further, the charter division Air Partner that Wheels Up bought in 2022 will be fully integrated into Wheels Up by the end of the year, Harvey said.
Wheels Up Q1 Metrics
Wheels Up reported first-quarter revenue of $177.5 million, a 10 percent decline year over year. Its net loss for the quarter was $99.3 million, compared with a net loss of $97.5 million a year prior.
Total Q1 gross bookings were $241.9 million, up 8 percent year over year. Private jet gross bookings were up 7 percent to $205.3 million.
Mattson said that the strength of the corporate sector helped support that 8 percent increase in total gross bookings and "contributes meaningfully to improvements in aircraft utilization, adjusted contribution margin, enhancements to our programmatic membership business, and the continued growth of our global charter operations. As our corporate offering expands, we expect it to play an even greater role in our revenue mix going forward."
Wheels Up also recently executed a definitive agreement with Gogo to install its satellite Wi-Fi systems in Wheels Up aircraft. Those installations are to begin this summer, according to the carrier.
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