Gama Aviation Logs 100,000th Flight for Wheels Up

Gama Aviation LLC recently conducted the 100,000th flight for Wheels Up. (Wheels Up owns its own airplanes and markets its membership charter program, but Gama operates the aircraft under contract.) N861UP, a Beechcraft King Air 350, made the milestone flight, flying from Jacksonville, Florida, to Nashville, Tennessee, on July 5.

This follows more than 400 flights that Gama Aviation completed for Wheels Up from June 29 through July 2. This included “record-breaking numbers” on July 1, when more than 100 passenger legs were flown. That week also saw Wheels Up securing $90 million in debt financing from KKR to purchase its next 17 King Air 350s.

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“Four years ago, Wheels Up was an idea, a PowerPoint presentation, and a spreadsheet,” said Gama Aviation LLC president and CEO Thomas Connelly. “Now its flight operations have the same scale as a regional airline—it is fast approaching 6,000 flight sectors per month—with the continual drive to democratize private aviation.”