Blade’s record revenues ‘show the plan is working’

Blade’s record second quarter revenues of $61m, up over 70% on the same period last year, “illustrates the value proposition” of its business model, said CEO Rob Wiesenthal.

Total revenue actually increased 71.2% to $61m in the second quarter (Q2) versus $35.6m in the prior year period. Flight profit increased 102.9% to $10.4m versus $5.1m in the prior year period, driven in part by strong growth in Blade’s organ transport business. MediMobility Organ Transport revenue increased 99.4% to $34.4m in Q2. Flight margin also improved to 17% in Q2 up from 14.3% in Q2 2022. Also, largely because of the Blade Europe acquisition, short distance revenue increased 75.0% to $19.2m. 

Net loss was $12.2m in the quarter versus a net income of $8.4m in the prior year period. This has largely been driven by a change in the fair value of warrant liabilities of minus $2.5m, compared to a change of $19.3m in the prior year period.

Wiesenthal said: “In MediMobility Organ Transport, we continue to benefit from new organ preservation technologies that are expanding the market, as well as the addition of a number of new transplant centre and organ procurement organisations. In our Passenger business, we saw strong volume and pricing growth in the Northeast, particularly for our 5-minute helicopter transfers between Manhattan and New York area airports.”

Adjusted EBITDA loss improved to $4.4m in Q2 versus a loss of $6.1m in the prior year. The improvement can be explained by a 172% increase in medical segment adjusted EBITDA to $3m in Q2.

Will Heyburn, Blade’s chief financial officer, said: “Blade delivered significant year over year improvement in adjusted EBITDA this quarter, driven by 172% growth in medical segment adjusted EBITDA and cost savings across our corporate platform. Our cost efficiency program is showing meaningful results with adjusted unallocated corporate expenses, which relate to the overall Blade shared services platform, decreasing 12% in Q2 2023 versus the prior year period, despite our significant 71% revenue growth. We expect that continued growth and cost efficiencies will lead to further year over year improvement in adjusted EBITDA in the second half of the year.”

In April, Blade helped out with a record-breaking heart transplant mission in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital and Paragonix Technologies. Blade facilitated the transport of a donor heart and transplant team members 2,506nm from Juneau, Alaska, to Boston, Massachusetts. This journey set the record for the longest distance a donor heart has ever travelled for a transplant surgery.

In June at the Paris Air Show, Blade and Eve announced a memorandum of understanding to transform air transportation in Europe, starting with France. The firms plan to do this by laying the foundation to integrate Eve’s eVTOL into Blade’s European route network.

Melissa Tomkiel, Blade’s president, added: “The FAA’s blueprint for air mobility, released in July, outlines a gradual transition to Electric Vertical Aircraft, or EVA, utilising existing air traffic control systems and infrastructure. This approach validates Blade’s unique strategy, focused on our exclusive Blade terminals at existing heliports and airports in the most active air mobility corridors operating around the world today. As a result, Blade is best positioned to enable the gradual transition of today’s air mobility fliers from helicopters to EVA, which we expect to expand the addressable market for our Passenger segment through lower cost, emission-free, and near-silent flight.”