{"id":7536,"date":"2022-05-27T06:44:03","date_gmt":"2022-05-27T05:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dgualdo.it\/wpmain\/?p=7536"},"modified":"2022-05-27T06:44:14","modified_gmt":"2022-05-27T05:44:14","slug":"blade-to-acquire-monacair-and-two-french-heli-operators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dgualdo.it\/wpmain\/blade-to-acquire-monacair-and-two-french-heli-operators\/world_news\/05\/2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Blade to acquire Monacair and two French heli operators"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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PRESS RELEASE – 23 May 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blade Air Mobility, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLDE, \u201cBlade\u201d) a technology-powered global air mobility platform, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement (the \u201cAgreement\u201d) through its wholly-owned European subsidiaries to acquire the asset-light commercial passenger transport activities of three urban air mobility operators in Europe: Monacair SAM, H\u00e9li S\u00e9curit\u00e9 and another leading helicopter operator in the South of France. <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Blade will also develop branded passenger terminals at multiple airports and vertiports in France, Monaco and Switzerland utilized by the Air Carriers. The Air Carriers\u2019 April year-to-date charter business revenues and flight hours were each approximately 30% above the same period in 2019 as the post-pandemic recovery in travel has been strong in the region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Damien Mazaudier, Monacair\u2019s CEO, will join Blade Europe\u2019s Executive Director, Sabrina Barbera, and Blade Europe\u2019s Executive Vice President of Business Development, Anne-Pascale Guedon, overseeing the transition of the Air Carriers\u2019 passenger businesses to Blade and will have an important role in launching Blade\u2019s European services. This executive team will also manage key personnel who have been running the day-to-day commercial operations of the Air Carriers and will now continue to do so for Blade. \u201cThese three acquisitions are core to our strategy of leveraging our asset-light model to aggregate the premier use cases for urban air mobility. As a result, Blade has now amassed what we believe to be the most valuable routes in the world. Adding this formidable presence in Europe to our existing operations across the greater New York area, Vancouver and India, is a critical step in our expansion,\u201d said Rob Wiesenthal, Chief Executive Officer of Blade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBlade\u2019s powerful global platform, technology and brand together with Monacair\u2019s strong operating history, aircraft management business, strategic infrastructure and customer trust is an unbeatable combination that will amplify urban air mobility in Europe. On behalf of the Casiraghi family, we fully support and look forward to the European launch of Blade\u2019s commercial services commencing this month with the Monaco Grand Prix,\u201d said Marco Casiraghi, Co-Founder of Monacair. Blade\u2019s President, Melissa Tomkiel, added, \u201cBlade continues to cement its position as the world\u2019s leader in urban air mobility with the addition of these routes in Southern France, Monaco, Italy and Switzerland, which, given the geography, short distances and large addressable markets serve as the perfect first-use cases for quiet and emission-free EVA. Our European expansion would not be possible without these trusted operating partners who have safely and profitably flown hundreds of thousands of fliers for over 30 years.\u201d <\/strong>\u201cThese acquisitions should contribute free cash flow on day one, accelerating our timeline to profitability while generating a great return on investment today that will only be enhanced by the future introduction of Electric Vertical Aircraft,\u201d said Will Heyburn, Chief Financial Officer of Blade. \u201cBlade will now have unmatched scale in European urban air mobility, further diversifying our overall business.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transaction Highlights: Blade will simultaneously acquire the asset-light commercial activities of Monacair, H\u00e9li S\u00e9curit\u00e9 and a third prominent European helicopter operator <\/strong>for a total cash outlay of \u20ac48mm (US$50mm). Blade to become the exclusive customer of the Air Carriers, offering Blade branded charter and by-the-seat services in Europe. Pro forma for this acquisition in 2019, Blade would have flown approximately 260,000 fliers spanning three continents, solidifying its position as the largest global urban air mobility company. Combination should immediately contribute free cash flow, driven by flight margins above Blade\u2019s historical company average, considerably accelerating Blade\u2019s path to profitability. Blade will collaborate with the Air Carriers to expand routes for additional key European markets, pursue vertiport development opportunities, and explore integration of Electric Vertical Aircraft for Blade flights in Europe. Transaction is expected to close by Summer 2022, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRESS RELEASE – 23 May 2022 Blade Air Mobility, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLDE, \u201cBlade\u201d) a technology-powered global air mobility<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[48,2790,2789,2783,720,46,283,2791,284,2792],"class_list":["post-7536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world_news","tag-airbus-helicopters","tag-blade-air-mobility","tag-blade-copters","tag-ebace-2022","tag-ec130t2","tag-ecureuil","tag-h130","tag-heli-securite","tag-monacair","tag-monaco-heliport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dgualdo.it\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dgualdo.it\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dgualdo.it\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dgualdo.it\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dgualdo.it\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7536"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.dgualdo.it\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7541,"href":"https:\/\/www.dgualdo.it\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7536\/revisions\/7541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dgualdo.it\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dgualdo.it\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dgualdo.it\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}