Wheels Up, an audacious entrant to the charter aircraft market six years ago, has hit the billion-dollar mark in business value and is expanding its business model. At a news conference at NBAA in Orlando on Monday, Wheels Up CEO Ken Dichter said the company now operates 93 aircraft and employs 400 pilots and is going after a bigger slice of the market. The company, which announced its plan to serve the bottom of the market with new-generation Beech King Airs at NBAA in Las Vegas six years ago, was greeted with some skepticism but skeptics are few and far between these days.
Dichter said the King Air 350i is perfect for the two-hour flights that make up the bulk of most clients’ travel needs and the relatively low acquisition and operating costs meant Wheels Up could offer private travel to previously untapped markets. An eight-seat King Air charters for about $4500 an hour. “It means you can go to Nantucket for $500 (per seat),” he said. Wheels Up also tapped into the sometimes perplexing millennial market by essentially absolving clients in that age bracket of any responsibility for the nuts and bolts of getting them from place to place. Coupled with a slick digital platform and the careful use of testimonial advertising from sports and celebrity clients, the carrier is seeing major results. It uses a membership model that gives members access to online tools for arranging flights. There are now about 5,000 members.
