NEW YORK (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Blade Air Mobility, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLDE, “Blade” or the “Company”), today announced financial results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2024.
Fourth Quarter Ended December 31, 2024 Financial Highlights
- Total revenue increased 14.5% to $54.4 million in the current quarter versus $47.5 million in the prior year period, driven primarily by growth in both our Passenger and Medical segments. Excluding Canada, which we exited in August 2024, revenue increased 22.1%, versus the prior year period.
- Flight Profit(1) increased 39.7% to $12.6 million in the current quarter versus $9.0 million in the prior year period, driven by strong growth in both the Medical and Passenger segments.
- Flight Margin(1) improved to 23.2% in the current quarter from 19.0% in the prior year period. Passenger Flight Margin expansion was driven by margin improvements in Short Distance and Jet & Other Passenger, along with our exit from Canada. In Medical, Flight Margin expansion was primarily driven by our aircraft capacity strategy.
- Medical revenue increased 13.7% to $36.4 million in the current quarter versus $32.0 million in the prior year period. The increase in Air revenue was primarily driven by trip volume partially offset by a reduction in block hours per trip as we increased the size of our dedicated fleet and positioned aircraft closer to our customers, reducing repositioning cost while improving our ability to react quickly. Ground and TOPS, our organ matching service, grew faster than the Medical segment average.
- Short Distance revenue decreased 14.7% to $9.1 million in the current quarter versus $10.7 million in the prior year period. Excluding Canada, which we exited in August 2024, Short Distance revenue increased 17.7%(1) versus the prior year period. The increase was primarily driven by Leisure, Other Short Distance and New York Airport.
- Jet and Other revenue increased 84.7% to $8.8 million in the current quarter versus $4.8 million in the prior year period primarily driven by higher flight volumes.
- Net loss improved by $24.1 million versus the prior year to $(9.8) million in the current quarter driven primarily by a $27.3 million improvement in loss from operations partially offset by other non-operating income and income taxes.
- Adjusted EBITDA(1) increased by $4.9 million year-over-year to $(0.4) million in the current quarter versus $(5.2) million in the prior year period primarily due to a $3.0 million improvement in Medical Segment Adjusted EBITDA and a $2.5 million increase in Passenger Segment Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter partially offset by an increase in Adjusted Unallocated Corporate Expenses and Software Development.
- Operating Cash Flow increased by $7.6 million to $(1.8) million in the current quarter. Capital expenditures of $5.0 million were driven primarily by the $3.2 million purchase of aircraft in the Medical segment. Free Cash Flow, Before Aircraft Acquisitions, which is net of all capital expenditures, including aircraft maintenance expenses, but excludes the impact of aircraft acquisitions, increased by $5.8 million to $(3.6) million in the current quarter.
- Ended FY 2024 with $127.1 million in cash and short term investments.
(1) See “Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures” and “Key Metrics and Non-GAAP Financial Information” sections attached to this release for an explanation of Non-GAAP measures used and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.
Business Highlights and Recent Updates
- In Medical, we owned nine aircraft at the end of December 2024 and our tenth aircraft entered service in February 2025. We continue to expect that our owned fleet will represent approximately one third of our Medical flight hours in 2025, with the majority of flight hours remaining on third-party aircraft.
- Our organ placement service offering (“TOPS”) ended the year with six contracted customers and a strong sales pipeline.
- We announced an alliance with Skyports Infrastructure to launch a pilot program that will expand Blade’s existing by-the-seat helicopter transfer service, connecting the Downtown Manhattan Heliport and John F. Kennedy International Airport (“JFK”), starting in April of this year.
- In March, Blade introduced a new mobile app that offers an enhanced user experience, easy flight booking, flexible payment options, trip management functionality and many more features.
Financial Outlook(2)
For the full year 2025, we expect:
- Revenue of $245-265 million
- Double-digit Adjusted EBITDA
Conference Call
The Company will conduct a conference call starting at 8:00 a.m. ET on Thursday March 13, 2025 to discuss the results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2024.
A live audio-only webcast of the call may be accessed from the Investor Relations section of the Company’s website at https://ir.blade.com/. An archived replay of the call will be available on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website for one year.
(1) See “Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures” and “Key Metrics and Non-GAAP Financial Information” sections attached to this release for an explanation of Non-GAAP measures used and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.
(2) We have not reconciled the forward-looking Adjusted EBITDA guidance included above to the most directly comparable GAAP measure because this cannot be done without unreasonable effort due to the variability and low visibility with respect to certain costs, the most significant of which are incentive compensation (including stock-based compensation), transaction-related expenses, certain fair value measurements, which are potential adjustments to future earnings. We expect the variability of these items to have a potentially unpredictable, and a potentially significant, impact on our future GAAP financial results.
Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information
Blade believes that the non-GAAP measures discussed below, viewed in addition to and not in lieu of our reported U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”) results, provide useful information to investors by providing a more focused measure of operating results, enhance the overall understanding of past financial performance and future prospects, and allow for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in its financial and operational decision making. The non-GAAP measures presented herein may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Unallocated Corporate Expenses, SG&A, Adjusted SG&A, Flight Profit, Flight Margin, Free Cash Flow and Free Cash Flow, before Aircraft Acquisitions and revenue excluding the impact of Canada have been reconciled to the nearest GAAP measure in the tables within this press release.
Adjusted EBITDA – Blade reports Adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. Blade defines Adjusted EBITDA as net loss adjusted to exclude depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation, change in fair value of warrant liabilities, interest income and expense, income tax, realized gains and losses on short-term investments, impairment of intangible assets and certain other non-recurring items that management does not believe are indicative of ongoing Company operating performance and would impact the comparability of results between periods.
Adjusted Unallocated Corporate Expenses – Blade defines Adjusted Unallocated Corporate Expenses as expenses that cannot be allocated to either of our reporting segments (Passenger and Medical) and therefore attributable to our Corporate expenses and software development, less non-cash items and certain other non-recurring items that management does not believe are indicative of ongoing Company operating performance and would impact the comparability of results between periods.
SG&A and Adjusted SG&A – Blade defines SG&A as total operating expenses excluding cost of revenue. Blade defines Adjusted SG&A as total operating expenses excluding cost of revenue and excluding non-cash items and certain other non-recurring items that management does not believe are indicative of ongoing Company operating performance and would impact the comparability of results between periods.
Flight Profit and Flight Margin – Blade defines Flight Profit as revenue less cost of revenue. Cost of revenue consists of flight costs paid to operators of aircraft and vehicles, landing fees, depreciation of aircraft and vehicles, operating lease cost, internal costs incurred in generating organ ground transportation revenue using the Company's owned vehicles and costs of operating our owned aircraft including fuel, management fees paid to the operator, maintenance costs and pilot salaries. Blade defines Flight Margin for a period as Flight Profit for the period divided by revenue for the same period. Blade believes that Flight Profit and Flight Margin provide an important measure of the profitability of the Company's flight and ground operations, as they focus solely on the non-discretionary direct costs associated with those operations such as third-party variable costs and costs of owning and operating Blade's owned aircraft.
Free Cash Flow and Free Cash Flow, before Aircraft Acquisitions – Blade defines Free Cash Flow as net cash provided by / (used in) operating activities less capital expenditures and capitalized software development costs. Blade also reports Free Cash Flow, before Aircraft Acquisitions, which is Free Cash Flow excluding cash outflows for aircraft acquisitions. Blade believes that Free Cash Flow and Free Cash Flow, before Aircraft Acquisitions provide important insights into the cash-generating capability of the business, with Free Cash Flow, before Aircraft Acquisition specifically highlighting the cash generated by our core operations before the impact of discretionary strategic investments in new aircraft.
We have also shown revenue and Short Distance revenue excluding the impact of Canada in this release. These amounts reflect total revenue and short distance revenue, respectively, excluding the activity in Canada in both the current and the prior year periods. The Company discontinued its operations in Canada on August 31, 2024. Management believes that presenting this information enhances the comparability of results between periods.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts and may be identified by the use of words such as “will”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “could”, “continue”, “expect”, “estimate”, “may”, “plan”, “outlook”, “future”, “target”, and “project” and other similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. These statements, which involve risks and uncertainties, relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results and estimates of amounts not yet determinable and may also relate to Blade’s future prospects, developments and business strategies. In particular, such forward-looking statements include statements concerning Blade’s future financial and operating performance (including the discussion of financial and liquidity outlook and guidance for 2025 and beyond), the composition and performance of its fleet, results of operations, industry environment and growth opportunities and new product lines and partnerships. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance.
Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other important factors, many of which are outside Blade’s control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements include: our continued incurrence of significant losses; failure of the markets for our offerings to grow as expected, or at all; our ability to effectively market and sell air transportation as a substitute for conventional methods of transportation; reliance on certain customers in our Passenger segment revenue; the inability or unavailability to use or take advantage of the shift, or lack thereof, to EVA technology; our ability to successfully enter new markets and launch new routes and services; any adverse publicity stemming from accidents involving small aircraft, helicopters or charter flights and, in particular, any accidents involving our third-party operators; any change to the ownership of our aircraft and the challenges related thereto; the effects of competition; harm to our reputation and brand; our ability to provide high-quality customer support; our ability to maintain a high daily aircraft usage rate; changes in consumer preferences, discretionary spending and other economic conditions; impact of natural disasters, outbreaks and pandemics, economic, social, weather, geopolitical, growth constraints, and regulatory conditions or other circumstances on metropolitan areas and airports where we have geographic concentration; the effects of climate change, including potential increased impacts of severe weather and regulatory activity; the availability of aircraft fuel; our ability to address system failures, defects, errors, or vulnerabilities in our website, applications, backend systems or other technology systems or those of third-party technology providers; interruptions or security breaches of our information technology systems; our placements within mobile applications; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; our use of open source software; our ability to expand and maintain our infrastructure network; our ability to access additional funding; the increase of costs and risks associated with international expansion; our ability to identify, complete and successfully integrate future acquisitions; our ability to manage our growth; increases in insurance costs or reductions in insurance coverage; the loss of key members of our management team; our ability to maintain our company culture; our reliance on contractual relationships with certain transplant centers and Organ Procurement Organizations; effects of fluctuating financial results; our reliance on third-party operators; the availability of third-party operators; disruptions to third-party operators; increases in insurance costs or reductions in insurance coverage for our third-party aircraft operators; the possibility that our third-party aircraft operators may illegally, improperly or otherwise inappropriately operate our branded aircraft; our reliance on third-party web service providers; changes in our regulatory environment; risks and impact of any litigation we may be subject to; regulatory obstacles in local governments; the expansion of domestic and foreign privacy and security laws; the expansion of environmental regulations; our ability to remediate any material weaknesses or maintain internal controls over financial reporting; our ability to maintain effective internal controls and disclosure controls; changes in the fair value of our warrants; and other factors beyond our control. Additional factors can be found in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, each as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. New risks and uncertainties arise from time to time, and it is impossible for us to predict these events or how they may affect us. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made, and Blade undertakes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, changes in expectations, future events or otherwise.
