Wheels Up Experience is to open of a maintenance facility at Palm Beach International airport (PBI) in Florida this year, to better align resources to the company's geographic network and flight demand density.

"We at Wheels Up are continuously evaluating and acting upon opportunities that will drive efficiencies and control costs, all in service of strengthening our business model and improving our member experience," says CEO George Mattson. "The opening of our maintenance facility at PBI is a key strategic step, leveraging our resources and locating our facilities in areas of high flight frequency. As a result of these measures, we are improving reliability and efficiency while reducing costs as we continue to drive toward Adjusted EBITDA profitability later this year."

In preparation for the opening, resources will be reallocated from existing, under-utilised facilities where there is reduced organic network flow and flight traffic. The immediate result will be the closure of existing maintenance operations in Cincinnati and Broomfield in Colorado; the relocation of mobile service units in Sacramento, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and certain service units in Burbank, California to the Eastern US; and the forthcoming relocation of resources currently stationed in Wheels Up's Fort Lauderdale facility to PBI.

Wheels Up has coordinated with MRO providers FEAM Aero and AVEX Aviation in Cincinnati and Broomfield in Colorado respectively to provide a direct path for placement opportunities for affected staff.

"The decision to close these facilities is not one that we made lightly. Our entire maintenance team is responsible for driving meaningful improvement across key customer experience indicators, particularly total completion rate and on-time performance metrics," says COO Dave Holtz. "Our people are absolutely crucial to our success, and we are highly appreciative of the MRO providers we have partnered with to ensure that we take care of the staff affected by these closures in every way we possibly can."

The process of closing the facilities in Cincinnati and Broomfield in Colorado will begin immediately, while the Fort Lauderdale relocation will take place following the opening of the facility in Palm Beach, Florida later this year.