WU (Wheels UP) buys new aircraft

The citation x is one of the most expensive planes to file per nm. Those big oversized engines do make it one of the fastest planes out there though. But from a profitability point of view - difficult to justify.

But wheels up has been hovering near bankruptcy - which makes it a big risk both in terms of working there or buying in to it

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mkosmo@reddit

I wonder how they got the credit for the orders.

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554TangoAlpha@reddit

Big Daddy is backing them

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Anthem00@reddit

Not hard to book planes. It’s mutually beneficial. They don’t have to pay for them now but only upon delivery. And delivery is staggered out - it’s not like they take 12 planes on Feb 25 and have to pay for all 12. So it’s beneficial for embraer to show the bookings, it’s beneficial for WU to look like they are buying new places. Win win. Who knows what actually gets delivered and paid for.

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X-T3PO@reddit

Used planes, not new.

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mkosmo@reddit

That's fair. It's just that Embraer/Bombardier aren't exactly short in the order books, and I figure they wouldn't want to commit production schedule to a sale (or sales) unlikely to close.

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X-T3PO@reddit

Used planes, the manufacturers' order books are irrelevant. All the manufacturer cares about this is that they can continue to sell spare parts.

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UNDR08@reddit

Light shining? I don’t think so.

They’ve got a long road to profitably, and damage control to do with the negativity of being broke.

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YOURE_GONNA_HATE_ME@reddit

Damage control is helped massively by being owned by Delta. You throw medallion status in there with buying a card and the midsize company execs get all excited

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BrianBash@reddit

Man I get it, but a gif day would be fun in this place. I would totally do that Jonah Hill one.

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X-T3PO@reddit

The light is finally starting to shine for Wheels up.

That's one way to describe shoving a flashlight up their ass.

Will they thrive in the future markets just as good as NetJets?

Pfffffftttttt..... ROFLMAO. No.

Those BE40s were *never* supposed to be in WUP colours. In 2018/2019 they acquired Travel Management. TMC was circling the drain because they couldn't afford to replace their fleet of BE40 shitboxes. The acquisition was strategically to get TMC's 135 certificate (WUP was going to dump Gama for operations and run on their own cert, but that didn't exactly happen) and they made ✨glowing✨ promises to all the TMC pilots that they would soon all be in shiny brand-new Citation XLS to replace the BE40s.

Kenny Dichter was so high on huffing his own farts that he thought the huge fleet of King Air 350i's would make the company immune to a recession in private flying - the thought was that people who could barely afford the KAs would stop flying private, and people who flew on jets would save money by stepping down to KAs, and people who flew large jets would step down to the Citations. Then 2020 happened and while other charter operators were swamped with people who wanted to fly private/avoid airlines, somehow WUP fumbled everything, parked the fleet, laid off the crews, and f'd themselves. Suddenly there were almost no WUP KAs to been seen, but those ex-TMC BE40s had shiny corporate paint and were flying for WUP.

Now, 5+ years after the TMC acquisition, they're financially and operationally way worse off, still making the same promise about new jets to replace old, and a shadow of their former operation, having acquired/destroyed/f'd-over Gama in the process.

The only thriving is going to be by the eventual bankruptcy lawyers.

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TurnandBurn_172@reddit

Thanks for this history! Can you shed some light on why tf Delta bought into them again?

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CMHCommenter@reddit

As someone who used to fly there, I think you paint quite the rosy picture of what a few “new to them” jets will do for the company. Checkout flight aware at some point throughout the day. For a company with ~140 aircraft on their certificate, it’s rare to see more than 20 flying at any given time…

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InGeorgeWeTrust_@reddit

They’re cooked.

There’s very very few futures where they become a profitable company and even less where they are just as good as Netjets… that made me chuckle.

Wheels up has some great crews but the company management doesn’t want to preform like Netjets and likely never will.

They’ve ordered some incredibly expensive planes after suffering years of loss. Good luck

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X-T3PO@reddit

Used aircraft, not ordered new.

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Iaqton@reddit

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wheels-up-announces-fleet-modernization-strategy-and-associated-transactions-302283330.html

Was at their press conference at NBAA today.

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EsquireRed@reddit

Will they thrive in the future markets just as good as NetJets?

No, no they will not.

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TurnandBurn_172@reddit

This place has 9 lives

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rFlyingTower@reddit

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:

Wheels up is in the process of acquiring newer aircraft to add to its fleet. A recent post claims they are going to be acquiring Phenom 300s and CL300/350s. These planes will replace the old Citation Xs and BE40s thats are less reliable for the current market. Wheels up also will offer the greater in air wifi capabilites with Gogos new Galileo HDX. The light is finally starting to shine for Wheels up. Will they thrive in the future markets just as good as NetJets?

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