Long-time Delta Air Lines senior executive Dave Holtz has joined Wheels Up Experience as its chairman of operations.

In this newly created role, Holtz will spearhead the creation of a member and operations centre, reporting to president Vinayak Hegde and partnering with COO Tom Bergeson in building sustainable operational excellence.

"Dave has more than four decades of experience at the highest levels of commercial aviation, and we are thrilled he's joining our talented executive leadership team," says Hegde. "As Wheels Up continues to see record demand, our focus on our members and our overall operations is more important than ever. Dave knows what success looks like at scale and will help us build for the future while continuing our core focus on the customer experience."

Holtz is a 43 year veteran of Delta Air Lines where he served the last 11 years as senior vice president of its operations and customer centre, which garnered numerous awards during his tenure for sustainable operational excellence. He helped lead Delta's innovative blending of its operations and customer perspectives, resulting in a more cohesive and integrated approach to both functions. He was named one of the top aviation leaders by Business Travel News in 2015.

"Private aviation is ripe for disruption, and Wheels Up is a clear leader," says Holtz. "I'm excited by the opportunity to couple established and scaled operational practices with the company's founding focus on its members and customers to drive an exciting new chapter for Wheels Up."

The company published its financial results for the fourth quarter 2021. During that time it says revenue increased 64 per cent year-over-year to $345 million; active members grew 31 per cent y-o-y to 12,040; live flight legs increased 63 per cent y-o-y to 20,296; net loss increased by $42 million y-o-y to a loss of $77 million; and adjusted EBITDA decreased by $35 million y-o-y to a loss of $46 million.

"I am pleased to report another quarter of record revenue, strong membership growth and retention, along with the best quarter in our history for prepaid block sales, which grew more than 80 per cent to $540 million in the fourth quarter," says chairman and CEO Kenny Dichter. "We have more members that are increasingly making long-term commitments to Wheels Up, giving us clear revenue visibility for the year ahead and the confidence to invest in our growth while absorbing short-term margin pressures. Additionally, we have several key initiatives underway to improve our profitability as we aggressively expand our global supply. As always, I am grateful to our employees for their dedication and to our members and customers for their loyalty and trust."

"We are now working to increase our capacity to serve the strong demand we are seeing through pilot hiring, enhancing our maintenance capabilities and adding to our fleet composition," adds CFO Eric Jacobs. "The rollout of our technology initiatives will streamline our operations and add capacity through increased utilisation. That, combined with rate increases and cost saving measures, should drive strong margin improvements starting in the second half of the year."

The company plans to acquire UK-headquartered broker Air Partner to extend its platform into Europe and beyond, and is closing on the acquisition of Arizona-based operator Alante Air Charter. It is launching the first version of its global scheduling system, which will manage schedules across all of its operating certificates; a building block that provides a fleet-wide view of available aircraft, with significant benefits to come following the conversion of its entire controlled fleet to UP FMS by the end of April and its ongoing efforts to consolidate its First Party (1P) fleet onto a single operating certificate. And an enhanced app, leveraging a service-oriented architecture, should launch in April. The new platform will enable improved functionality, greater scalability and a much faster pace of innovation to launch new features.