Blade Air Mobility, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Blade Air Mobility, Inc. fiscal third quarter 2021 financial results conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star then zero on your telephone keypad. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Tom Cook, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Andrew. And good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Blade Air Mobility Fiscal Third Quarter 2021 Conference Call and Webcast. We appreciate everyone joining us today. Before we get started, I would like to remind you of the company's forward-looking statement, Safe Harbor Language. Statements made in this conference call that are not historical facts, including statements about our future periods, may be deemed to constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual future results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. We refer you to our SEC filings, including our Form S-1 filed with the SEC on May 28th, 2021 and the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30th, 2021 filed with the SEC on August 16th, 2021 for a more detailed discussion of the risk factors that could cause these differences. Any forward-looking statements provided during this conference call are made only as of the date of this call. As stated in our SEC filings, BLADE disclaims any intent or obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements except as required by law. During today's call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe can be useful in evaluating our financial performance. A reconciliation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures to those non-GAAP financial measures is provided in our press release, which will be available on our website. These non-GAAP measures should not be considered in isolation or as substitute for our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Hosting today's call are Rob Wiesenthal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Blade, and Will Hayburn, Chief Financial Officer of Blade.

I will now turn the call over to Rob Wiesenthal. Rob? Thank you, Tom. Good morning, everyone. I'd like to thank you for your interest in Blade and welcome you to our earnings call for the fiscal third quarter ending June 30th, 2021, our first report as a public company. We had a great quarter and I'm very pleased to inform you of our 277% revenue growth versus 2020 and our 73% revenue growth compared to the pre-COVID 2019 period. Before we dive into results, I'd like to thank our employees and particularly our on-the-ground flyer experience team, for placing our flyers and their safety first as we continue to operate our business through the pandemic. The commitment of our team is particularly critical for our men and mobility service, which moves human organs for transplant by helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft. This business grew dramatically compared to last year, and it would never have been possible without our team showing up in person every single day so that we could continue providing this essential service to hospitals across the Northeast. While our other business lines have now rebounded or even shown growth versus the historical pre-COVID period, and certainly still and certainty still remains to the public our passengers trust us to get them quickly and seamlessly to wherever they need to be but the health and our safety of our flyers and employees remains paramount blade has led the way in implementing health and safety protocols and we continue to adjust our approach as needed in light of the dynamic nature of the virus We were the first aviation company to mandate in-flight masking, the first to have pre-boarding blood oxygen saturation testing, and the first to provide on-site COVID testing for our longer-haul flights. And this leadership position continues. This past Thursday, we were the first aviation company to announce a requirement for all flyers to be vaccinated starting on September 7th with exemptions as recommended by the CDC. It's an important differentiator versus our competitors on the ground and in the air, and we believe it will lead to increased flyer volume. With Blade, health protocols can scale. I'd like to take a few minutes to recap our strategic priorities and core strengths before we review our results from the most recent quarter. Our Acid Light model remains a key differentiator. The term Acid Light is used liberally by aviation companies, so let me explain what it means at Blade. Blade is a platform. We neither own nor operate aircraft. Our services are enabled through our strong and growing network of highly integrated embedded aircraft operator partnerships. This approach allows us to quickly and cost-effectively scale our business in response to fluctuations in customer demand, as well as a macro environment. There is no better example of the flexibility of this model than our performance during the pandemic. During lockdown in early 2020, We immediately reduced our supply of non-metamobility aircraft. And when the spring 2021 travel snapback occurred, we quickly brought them back online, while maintaining consistent unit economics and a great service for our flyers. We are committed to this approach today, and as we prepare for the transition to electric vertical aircraft, EVA, as we call them, or EVTOL in industry parlance, Blabe will partner with third parties that will own and operate EVA on our behalf. One of Blade's key priorities is to identify and launch short-distance routes that can be successful using the conventional aircraft of today, but that will also be appropriate for UVA once available. To achieve this, we will continue to pursue our organic growth plans, as well as undertake highly targeted acquisitions and partnerships, securing the infrastructure for these routes and enabling us to maintain our unique competitive advantages. At the same time, we will be helping our EVA manufacturer alliance partners achieve our mutual goal of bringing quiet, emission-free flight to the public. On the route growth front, we resumed our New York airport service this June, beginning with flights between Manhattan and JFK Airport after pausing the service at the start of the pandemic. By fall, we plan to once again service all three New York area airports. So far, we are pleased with the performance for the JFK restart, especially as compared to the early results of the service when we first launched it in 2019 pre-COVID. We are also preparing to launch new northeast corridor routes in 2022. We will share additional details about this before the year ends. With respect to our pipeline of strategic acquisitions and partnerships, we expect to announce two transactions before the end of this calendar year that will both fortify our strategic moat and accelerate our growth. Further, we have continued to support our transition to quiet and emission-free futures by entering into new alliances with leading EVA manufacturers. Just this quarter, we announced new partnerships with MagniX and EVE, bringing the total number of blade electric aircraft to four, all well-respected and well-capitalized companies, including Embraer, where EVE is one of their UAM divisions. Two of these partners are, in fact, flying their aircraft today with test pilots. Our agreement with MagniX will enable Blade to secure a supply of electric aircraft propulsion units for Lima, one of Blade's largest aircraft operating partners. These EPUs will enable Lima to convert its Blade-branded fleet of amphibious seaplanes to all electric aircraft starting as early as 2023 when development for commercial use is completed. Electric seaplanes will be deployed across Blade's northeastern and southeastern routes and are expected to operate emission-free at the same speed as the current generation of turbine aircraft with a significantly reduced noise footprint and lower operating costs. This alliance is uniquely important as it provides a near-term bridge to EVA given the engine's compatibility with already certified aircraft that are currently being utilized by Blade. Our agreement with EAST will enable Belay to deploy their EVA in South Florida and West Coast markets beginning in 2026 when development for commercial use is expected to be completed. blade will pay by the hour for use of these aircraft which will be operated by ease and its local partners again consistent with our asset light approach these alliances in addition to our earlier partnerships with beta technologies and wiscaro a joint venture between boeing and larry page's kitty hawk de-risk our alliance on the deployment schedule of any one manufacturer while giving Blade a portfolio of aircraft with different capabilities that are necessary for our wide variety of mission profiles. These alliances are subject to entering into additional agreements and certain FAA approvals. We will share additional developments with respect to our EVA alliances on future calls. With that, I'd like to turn it over to our CFO, Will Hayburn, to discuss our financial results in more detail.