Wheels Up is seeing ‘massive inbound volume’ amid commercial flight crisis, says CEO
, 2022-12-29 20:55:59
Wheels Up (UP), a private jet charter company, hasn’t been shielded from this week’s air travel chaos, Chairman and CEO Kenny Dichter told Yahoo Finance Live this week. But nor has it experienced the disastrous fate of commercial airlines over the holidays.
“We’re not immune to the weather,” he said. But, Dichter added, “our folks, our members, for the most part, have gotten exactly where they need to get on time or within an hour or two of departure. We’re subject to some of the commercial action, and we move our crews and some of our maintenance folks around on the system…I would say we’re taking a tremendous amount of inbound volume [customers expressing interest in and booking flights].”
This week has been a spectacularly difficult one in commercial air travel, as thousands of passengers have found themselves stranded as severe winter weather triggered waves of flight cancellations. Southwest Airlines (LUV) has been at the center of the debacle, cancelling more than 2,000 flights on Wednesday alone, according to FlightAware. Southwest has said it plans to return to normal service on Friday.
For Wheels Up, all the scheduling woes means they’ve had to double down on taking care of existing members.
“We always welcome demand,” said Dichter. “Over these peak-period times, we take care of our members and folks who have made commitments to us first. If there’s any slack in the system, we’re obviously open to new customers and prospects, but 98% of our focus is on our…
,
To read the original article, go to Click here