At the European Business Aviation Convention (EBACE), Beechcraft announced that Wheels Up has exercised its option to buy the next 35 King Air 350i turboprops from its initial 2013 order. Wheels Up will use the additional aircraft to expand its membership-based private fleet in the United States.
“The Textron Aviation family is proud that Wheels Up not only chose the King Air 350i to launch its revolutionary company, but that we can now offer them the industry’s widest range of aircraft solutions to support their growth,” said Scott Ernest, Textron Aviation president and CEO. “We look forward to expanding our relationship for years to come as Wheels Up continues to grow its membership.”
Wheels Up made the largest order in the history of general aviation turboprop aircraft two years ago. It encompasses up to 105 King Air 350i aircraft and includes maintenance, service, and support. Its first King Air 350i were delivered at NBAA 2013 and began service shortly after. So far, Wheels Up has received 31 of its initial 35 King Air 350i aircraft order. The next batch will be outfitted with Rockwell Collins’ new Pro Line Fusion avionics system and are expected to begin being delivered in Q1 of 2016.
“I feel like we are just getting started,” said Kenny Dichter, Wheels Up founder and CEO, concerning exercising the additional King Air 350i option. “Our current Wheels Up fleet plan calls for 175 King Air 350i and 50 Cessna Citation Excel/XLS by 2021, and we are exploring ways to incorporate additional Textron products onto the Wheels Up platform.”
Dichter has seen great success in the past 18 months. Wheels Up has a growing roster of about 1,350 members. This includes more than 100 corporate members. The company hopes to add an additional 800 members by the end of 2015. This would generate close to $150 million in revenue, with hopes of doubling it by 2016.
Traditionally, aviation has been geared towards an older demographic (64 years old is the average age of a jet owner). Dichter hopes to use “social aviation” to get Millennials flying privately earlier in their lives. This social-aviation strategy includes an app that was created by Wheels Up in-house developers. It allows Wheels Up members to sell seats and share costs on booked flights. This is a part of a new membership tier where members can rideshare and receive some other benefits.