Wheels Up Revenues Surge, but Losses Widen

Private lift provider Wheels Up reported record revenues for the fourth quarter of 2022 in its recent year-end earnings call. The company noted that its revenue for the quarter was $408 million, an increase of 18 percent year-over-year, on its way to year-end revenue of nearly $1.6 billion, an increase of 30 percent from 2021’s total.

“Active members grew 5 percent compared to a year ago, and retention metrics across our membership tiers have remained at high levels,” said CEO Kenny Dichter. “However, we are seeing some headwinds in new membership sales due to the macroeconomic environment, as well as a conscious effort to focus our global sales and marketing towards the most efficient and profitable flight opportunities.” He added that live flight legs for the year decreased by 5 percent year-over-year “while demand and pricing remained very strong relative to historical norms.”

The company noted that its flight revenue rose by 9 percent year-over-year, a higher increase than was expected.

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While the company introduced higher pricing structures last year, Wheels Up CFO Todd Smith explained that it is taking time for those increases to work through the system. “If you think about fourth-quarter revenues, it is only about 30 percent of those revenues that were on that 2022 pricing ruleset and price levels, so that will increasingly come through the book over the next couple of years and will improve and push up our revenue per live flight leg,” he said.

Wheels Up also reported that its net loss for the quarter increased by $162 million to $239 million, while its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) improved by $3 million year-over-year to a loss of $44 million. Overall for the year, the company posted a net loss of $507 million.

The results come after Wheels Up announced it would reduce its non-flight-essential staff under a host of cost-cutting and efficiency initiatives the operator is introducing to help achieve adjusted EBITDA profitability in 2024. “When we talked about the path to profitability, we said it’s going to be driven by cost actions, pricing, and program changes as well as significant improvement in our operational execution and the efficiency of our operations,” Smith told BJT, adding that the bottom-line effects from the personnel reductions will begin to be felt strongly starting in the second quarter.

"What underpins our confidence is that almost all of the things that we need to deliver are within our control," he added. "Obviously, we are operating in a macro environment that is a little choppy and uncertain right now, but as we think about our plans, we're focused on making sure that we are taking the steps to allow us to be successful regardless of that macro outlook."

Another measure the company is initiating is the consolidation of all its member operation centers into a single centralized location in Atlanta. As well, it has begun consolidating its six FAA operating certificates down to one, a move it believes will eliminate many cost redundancies and allow it to operate its fleet more efficiently.

Part of that strategy is prioritizing its sales and marketing efforts to drive specific demand in areas of its fleet network density, where its margins are highest, to reduce the number of costly repositioning flights.

“We are continuing to overhaul our internal and external maintenance operations to improve aircraft availability,” said Smith, adding that the company has bolstered its preventative maintenance program as well to promote greater fleet operational readiness, particularly during times of peak demand.

As Wheels Up continues streamlining its operational expenditures, the company will also lean more heavily into technology, such as the automation of processes like customer billing and cross-fleet scheduling optimization. It will also dial down its spending on sponsored events.

In October, Wheels Up also mortgaged its fleet in a move that boosted its cash on hand to nearly $600 million. “The debt transaction in October was obviously a significant amount of additional liquidity, but the fourth quarter was also our strongest block [sales] quarter of the year,” said Smith. “We brought in almost $350 million in blocks in the fourth quarter, which gave us a total of around $1 billion, so our customers and our members continue to put a lot of faith and confidence in us in terms of making those prepayments, which gives us good visibility to future revenue.”

“The actions that we highlighted today give us confidence that we will achieve positive EBITDA in 2024,” concluded Dichter. “It is up to us to execute.”