Blade Air Mobility, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Blade Air Mobility Fiscal Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Release Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and expressions will file at that time. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to send a conference call over to Mr. Ravi Jani, Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thanks and good morning. Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Blade Air Mobility conference call and webcast for the quarter end of December 31st, 2022. We appreciate everyone joining us today. Before we get started, I'd like to remind you of the company's forward-looking statement in safe harbor language. Statements made on this conference call that are not historical facts, including statements about future time 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 annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC, 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 filing, Blades 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 certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe may be useful in evaluating our financial performance. A reconciliation of the most directly comparable consolidated GAAP financial measures to those non-GAAP financial measures is provided in our earnings release, and with respect to our segment non-GAAP measures in our annual report on Form 10-K. Our press release, investor presentation, and our Form 10-K will be available on our website. These non-GAAP measures should not be considered in isolation or as substitute for financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Hosting today's call are Rob Wiesenthal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Blade, and Will Habern, Chief Financial Officer. I will now turn the call over to Rob Wiesenthal. Rob? Thank you, Robbie.

Good morning, everyone. I'd like to thank you for your interest in Blade and welcome you to our earnings call for the fourth quarter ended December 31st, 2022. Our financial performance in the fourth quarter was once again well ahead of our expectations. Revenue in the December quarter increased 55% to $38.1 million versus $24.6 million in the comparable 2021 period. For the full year 2022, revenue increased 118% to a record 146.1 million compared to 67.2 million in 2021. Importantly, 2022 was a record year for flight profit, while corporate expenses continued to significantly decline as a percentage of revenues versus the prior year. These are not only the key building blocks that will drive us to profitability and cash generation, but also highlight the leverage provided by our shared services platform. Our laser focus on the pursuit of profitable revenue growth should enable improvement on both of these metrics. Turning to some highlights from the quarter, short distance delivered another quarter of impressive growth, driven by our acquisitions in Europe and Canada, and the continued ramp of Blade Airport, which flies travelers between Manhattan and New York area airports in just five minutes. Q4 was our best quarter yet for Blade Airport, both in terms of passengers and revenue. I'm also pleased with the progress we have made in integrating our European acquisitions and look forward to rolling out the Blade brand across all key European markets ahead of this summer's peak season. Metamobility Oregon Transport delivered another fantastic quarter with growth driven by new customer wins, continued expansion with existing customers, and strong end market trends. Today, we're the largest dedicated air transporter of human organs for transplant in the country. And in February, we rolled out a new television and online video corporate awareness campaign for our metamobility business titled Saving Lives Every Day, highlighting the important role we play supporting transplant centers and organ procurement organizations in improving patient outcomes. All of this hard work led to another quarter of significant growth in flight profit, which increased 38% versus the prior year period, while adjusted corporate expenses as a percentage of revenue declined to 35% in the fourth quarter of 2022 versus 40% in the prior year period. Again, demonstrating our strength across key metrics that will bring us to profitability. In addition to our financial success, we continue to make progress in other strategic initiatives. In January, institutional investor Redbird Capital Partners announced that it's increased its ownership position in Blade to over 5%. Redbird's founder, Jerry Cardinale, and I have been working together for over two decades, and he has been an investor in our company since 2016. Blade's core competencies in last mile air mobility, jet charter, and organ transplant flights overlap well with Redbird's existing aviation portfolio, which we hope to leverage to support our continued growth across both passenger and medical businesses. Additionally, Redbird's global sports and media properties provide a natural complement to Blade's urban air mobility solutions for fans attending large sports and entertainment events. This includes AC Milan Football Club, which fits nicely within our European footprint. Lastly, both Redbird and Blade are leading supporters of aviation's transition towards electric vertical aircraft or EVA technology. To that end, in February, we were proud to be part of an historic moment for the EVA industry as we demonstrated the first pilot in EVA in flight in the greater New York City area in partnership with Beta Technologies. At the demonstration, government officials, media, investors, and a local community were all able to witness the Aaliyah 250 aircraft with blade livery take flight, powered by an all-electric propulsion system. The crowd was also able to experience the dramatic noise reduction offered by the Aaliyah with a live comparison against the conventional helicopter in flight, highlighting the aircraft's sound profile that is one-tenth the decibel level of its conventional counterpart. We thank our partners at Beta for allowing us to showcase this incredible technology to our home market in New York City as part of our effort to bring safe, quiet, and sustainable air transportation to commuter and commercial customers alike. In the meantime, we remain focused on providing best-in-class air mobility solutions for all our flyers around the world using conventional aircraft, always improving the experience, terminal infrastructure, and technology that will fortify our transition to EVA while continuing to scale our passenger business towards profitability and free cash flow. Given our tremendous progress in 2022, it is clear that the significant investments we've made in our people, technology, and products have enabled us to successfully navigate an unprecedented macro environment and further build on our strengths as a company. Across both our passenger and medical businesses, our team has worked tirelessly to deliver our flyers and organ transportation customers the best service in the industry, the greatest level of availability and flexibility, and fair prices. Not an easy feat. However, we are seeing the results of these efforts in our continued competitive posture, increased market share, and continued strong financial performance. With that, I'll turn the call over to Will.