Wheels Up is continuing its operational turnaround after clocking 14 straight days without a cancellation to start 2026.
Under Delta Air Lines, Wheels Up has been working to increase its operational reliability.
This morning, it announced “a record-breaking 14 consecutive days to start 2026 without a single flight cancellation.”
That means a 100% completion each day.
Wheels Up also had “six perfect completion days” during the peak December holiday travel week.
According to the release:
‘This milestone vastly surpasses the company’s previous record. In addition, the company is fulfilling 99% of its flights without extended (3-hour-plus) delays, its lowest levels on record. These operational achievements highlight continued progress in operational reliability, disciplined planning, proactive communication, and real-time decision-making by teams across flight operations, maintenance, scheduling, and customer service.’
CEO George Mattson said, “This milestone is a clear signal that our transformation is working.”
Mattson came to Wheels Up in October 2023.
He previously spent over a decade on the board of Delta Air Lines.
Mattson continued, “From day one, we talked about building the best-run private aviation company in the industry,” adding, “Our world-class operations team is now delivering the kind of consistency our customers expect.”
Mattson said, “This latest proof point, which will be further enhanced as we continue to progress our fleet transformation in the coming months, builds trust, strengthens our value proposition, and puts Wheels Up on a continued path toward sustainable growth.”
Chief Operating Officer David Holtz noted, “Reliability at this level is the result of deliberate, disciplined execution across the organization.”
Holtz joined Wheels Up in late 2022 after serving for decades in senior operations roles at Delta.
The company opened a new operations center in Atlanta, now its headquarters, back in 2023 to centralize functions that had been split following a half dozen acquisitions.
Delta has seconded more than a dozen executives to Wheels Up.
Holtz continued, “Operating more than 1,000 flights without a single cancellation – including during peak holiday periods – reflects the progress we’ve made in planning, maintenance, and real-time decision-making.”
He added, “Operational excellence is a continuous journey, and we are proud of the strong progress the team is making as we deliver for our customers.”
The company said, “The record streak underscores the progress of Wheels Up’s ongoing transformation strategy, centered on a customer-centric model with unmatched flexibility and accessibility backed by operational and financial discipline.”
During Corporate Jet Investor last year, Mattson told attendees, “We’re in the midst of a very complex transition. We’re scaling down a set of legacy fleets. We’re building up a set of next-generation fleets. And right now, we’re managing a lot of fleets that are not at optimal scale.”
He continued, “And so having said that, we also had our best operating performance quarter of our transition of our transformation in the last couple of years.”
Mattson has regularly challenged competitors to post on-time performance and completion rates.
In its Q3 earnings, Wheels Up continued to report operational performance.
Completion percentage was 99% in Q3, up one point.
The on-time percentage increased by four points to 89%.
There was also a record 24 brand days.
Brand days are days without cancellations.
Find the perfect solution for your private aviation needs
Save Time. Buy Confidently.
Receive an apples-to-apples comparison of programs that meet your needs from more than 500 jet card and fractional options covering 65 points of differentiation and over 40,000 data points.
