Private Jet Card Comparisons - Know Before You Buy
Compare over 250 private jet card membership programs by 65 variables in 1 place
Delta Air Lines’ decision to sell Delta Private Jets has yielded a huge gain on paper. It’s up over 100% just since the fourth quarter. In its latest 10-Q filing, the Atlanta-based airline increased the carrying value of its 24% interest in Wheels Up to $520 million. That makes the New York-based private aviation company its largest equity ownership stake.
Wheels Up today announced it is partnering with Bell Textron, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company. It plans to develop short- and long-term solutions with vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. The collaboration will focus on the growing demand for convenient intra-urban travel from city centers and regional airport helipads.
When Wheels Up’s acquired 5th-biggest Part 135 charter operator Mountain Aviation in January, it pushed the group past Directional Aviation’s Flexjet as the second-largest for-hire private aircraft operator in the U.S. For Wheels Up founder and CEO Kenny Dichter, it was a day at the beach compared to another cold New York winter morning in early 2019. At that point, Wheels Up didn’t operate a single aircraft. Founded in 2013, its owned and leased fleet was outsourced to Gama Aviation Signature. Wheels Up was a big brand. Yet, it was merely a marketing organization selling memberships onto what was then mainly a fleet of King Air 350i turboprops.
Wheels Up is going public via a SPAC. It’s provides a rare look into the world of private jet companies, which are either privately held or subsidiaries of large publicly traded companies, with limited public data.