Wheels Up

You, with something like a, a fleet operator, you know that you're gonna get rid of eight aircraft in that year probably.

Yeah, most, most of the time there, there is a, a little bit more advanced planning and that, you know, that's one of the things that, that we learned, uh, at NetJets and, and have applied through the, through the transition into the, into the Wheels Up world is that, you know, a- as a f- as a fleet operator, you have to have a, that long-term view.

You know, you can't decide tomorrow that we're gonna move, uh, 12 or 15 airplanes out of the fleet.

You have to have, uh, you have to have the, the big picture in mind to do that 'cause there's a lot of elements that go into, uh, doing it in the efficient manner, not only prepping an individual airplane for the marketplace, but how does that impact, uh, the, the rest of the operation and when do you pull it out of service and what do you need to do to prepare the airplane properly and, uh, and, and are you impacting lift requirements in the operation and so forth.

but it's challenging as well, and, and challenging in a good way where, you know, we challenge each other on, you know, is, uh, how to look at something, how to think about something, how to, uh, you know, how to put the right solution in place.

So, um, you know, I would say there has not been, uh, uh, not been bickering or fighting, but it's been a very collaborative, positive, uh, relationship really since we started working together.

So then you decide, and I'm guessing it's Seth's fault because he's worked with Kenny Dichter at Marquis, you decide to jump from NetJets to Wheels Up.

How did that come about? Was that just Kenny relentlessly selling and Kenny Dichter relentlessly selling and, and just not taking no for an answer?

And, uh, at some point, when it became the site, there was a, like, uh, maybe, uh, I don't wanna say a tequila tasting room, but there was a sponsored tequila room, [laughs] in my site, and I'm like, "This is the damnedest thing I think I've ever seen."

The same one that sponsored the Wheels Up party.

Yes.

Um, but I will say that I always tell people that the Secret Service, we're like, uh, we have a lot in common with Indiana Jones and archeologists.

We also have a pre-Colombian period, but it doesn't [laughs] involve Aztecs or Incans.

It involves a certain trip to Colombia where things changed quite a bit.

Uh, agreed, and, and the Wheels Up party was just fun.

Like, it wasn't, like-

Yeah.

And that was something, I mean, Wheels Up and FlyExclusive in their earnings reports were like, it didn't really, you know, the increases were there, but it was passed on to the consumer.

They didn't really seem to blink, to blink at it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it's also, I mean, you look in our space, and no offense, but you probably live in the real estate world, not in the private aviation world.

You happen to be tangential, but Wheels Up, Surf Air, FlyExclusive.

Who am I missing that's SPAC-

... people like, "Dude." A- and they la- trust me, they laughed at me.

Like, I'd go places, even on my speaking, I was at the Super Bowl, true story, the executives at Wheels Up, who I had partners with for, for years, literally ca- said, "Where are you going, Meltz? The bathroom?"

[laughs]

"You got a speaking engagement in the bathroom? W- you gonna do a IG live in the bathroom, Meltz?" Like, and people, like, and but I didn't care because I loved doing it.

So they're posting revenue of $111 million in this quarter versus 91 million last quarter, year over year.

Um, so that alone is better than what Wheels Up was showing, which we discussed a couple weeks ago, a week ago, because they're showing revenue growth when Wheels Up wasn't.

And again, they're in the same kind of situation that Wheels Up is.

They're doing this fleet transition, getting rid of old airplanes, bringing on new ones that are more efficient, and Jim seems to think that it's working, and they are third quarter in a row adjusted EBITDA positive.

Yep, exactly.

So, you know, when you take the main activity, which is flying airplanes, minus the cost to fly those airplanes, they are growing their gross margin, which is the first step, right?

Mm-hmm.

We talked about during the Wheels Up piece where it's like, look, you need to start cutting SG&A.