Revenues increased to $119.4 million for Surf Air Mobility in 2024 as it cut losses and seeks to build its ad hoc private jet charter segment.
Surf Air is planning to launch what it is calling the Surf Air On-Demand Jet Card.
The announcement came during Surf Air’s Q4 2024 earnings call earlier this evening.
CEO Deanna White told analysts, “We are currently rebranding our most profitable membership program into an industry-standard, easily marketable product.”
She previously served as CEO of Flexjet during its transition from Bombardier to Directional Aviation.
White said Surf Air “exited several charter products to focus on profitability rather than near-term market penetration” in 2025.
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White said, “We are in the process of recalibrating our on-demand business and I believe there is a lot of opportunity to optimize and profitability scale this business.”
She added, “We are expanding our client base from short-haul turboprop aircraft to midsize and heavy jet aircraft type and expect revenues to increase and margins to expand as our mix shifts.”
White added the company was “moving to secure inventory with volume purchasing agreements” from third-party charter operators.
The company, which is focused on urban mobility and regional scheduled flights, will fulfill the on-demand charter flights through other Part 135 operators.
According to White, direct integrations via Avinode and FlyEasy improve real-time availability and pricing for on-demand flyers.
At the same time, its technology investments via SurfOS have enabled the company to reduce its on-demand sales team by 50%.
Surf Air previously offered fixed flight rates on the Pilatus PC-12 as available.
The flights, up to 500 miles, were priced at $48,000 for six segments or $84,000 for 12 segments.
It also offered another option under the Surf Air Credit banner with deposit tiers from $50,000 to $500,000.
No further details on its new jet card program were available.
Revenue of $28.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2024 rose 5% compared to $26.8 million for the same period of the prior year.
It exceeded the company’s guidance of $25.0 million to $28.0 million.
Scheduled service revenue decreased by 4%.
The elimination of unprofitable routes primarily drove the dip.
On-demand charter revenue increased by 39% year-over-year for Q4.
On-demand service revenue increased by 28% year-over-year.
The company attributed the gain to”improved charter sales and increases in completed departures.”
The company sold 3,523 on-demand flights during 2024.
(Editor’s Note: Surf Air’s 10-k filed after this report indicates 2,831 on-demand flights in 2023 and 3,515 on-demand flights in 2024. There were no notes on the discrepancy between previous statements.)
It had 3,535 ad hoc charter flights in 2023.
(Editor’s Note: There were no notes on the discrepancy between previous statements.)
Surf Air recorded $26.6 million in on-demand charter revenues in 2023.
2024 ad hoc charter revenue numbers were not available.
(Editor’s Note: Surf Air’s 10-k filed after this report indicates 2,831 on-demand flights in 2023 and 3,515 on-demand flights in 2024. The report also shows on-demand revenue of $21.1 million in 2023 and $28,7 million in 2024. Per the report, “Absent the impact of the Southern Acquisition, the total scheduled revenue decreased by $0.6 million, or -17%, which was primarily attributable to a decline in our membership subscription base. The impact of the Southern Acquisition contributed an increase of $52 million, or 146%, to scheduled revenue primarily related to EAS revenue of $30.3 million, passenger revenue of $20.2 million, and other revenue of $1.5 million due to the results of Southern only being included for the period from July 27 to December 31, 2023, for purposes of the Company’s 2023 financial results. On-demand revenue increased by $7.6 million, or 36%, for the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to the year ended December 31, 2023. Of the total 3,515 on-demand charter flights, absent the impact of the Southern Acquisition, the Company conducted 2,478 on-demand charter flights during the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to 2,282 on-demand charter flights during the year ended December 31, 2023. The increase in on-demand charter flights, absent the impact of the acquisition of Southern, was driven by increases in marketing efforts for our on-demand products and other service offerings and was the primary driver, accounting for roughly $5.5 million of the total on-demand revenue increase period over period. The impact of the Southern Acquisition was to contribute an increase of $1.6 million to on-demand revenue during the year.”)
Surf Air revenues surged from $60.5 million in 2023 to $119.4 million last year.
It merged with Southern Airways in August 2023.
It also cut the 2023 operating loss from $196.8 million to $60.3 million in 2024.
Pre-tax loss narrowed from $254 million to $75.2 million.
Net loss decreased from $250.7 million to $74.9 million.
Adjusted EBITDA loss improved by $6.8 million, or 13%, to $44.1 million for the full year 2024, compared to $50.9 million for the same period of the prior year on a pro-forma basis.
At the end of December, Surf Air had $21.1 million in cash.
Executives guided 2025 Q1 revenue between $21 million to $24 million.
They also expected Adjusted EBITDA loss in the range of $12 million to $15 million.
This excludes the expected impact of stock-based compensation, changes in fair value of financial instruments, and other non-recurring items.
The Adjusted EBITDA loss range for the first quarter reflects the deployment of capital raised in November to clear the aircraft maintenance backlog and address certain interior and corrosion items that impacted aircraft availability in the quarter.
Surf Air plans to exit unprofitable routes and older aircraft.
Still, it expects revenues to exceed $100 million.
It also forecasts that airline operations will achieve a positive adjusted EBITDA in 2025.
White said Surf Air continues to pursue the creation of one or more joint ventures or partnerships with key vendors to capitalize separately on the company’s electrification efforts and its software venture, Surf Air Technologies, which will capitalize on our exclusive agreement with Palantir to power SurfOS, the operating system for regional air mobility.
In November, Surf Air secured $50 million in financing from Comvest.
SURF AIR FY 2024 FINANCIALS from Private Jet Card Comparisons
