Full Press Release Details
Blade to Acquire Three Urban Air Mobility Companies
Creating Largest Helicopter Passenger Service in Europe
YORK (May 19, 2022) - Blade Air Mobility, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLDE, "Blade") a technology-powered
global air mobility platform, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement (the "Agreement") 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 li S curit and another leading helicopter operator in the South of France. Blade will
also develop branded passenger terminals at multiple airports and vertiports in France, Monaco and Switzerland utilized by the Air Carriers.
Air Carriers' 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.
Damien Mazaudier, Monacair's CEO, will join
Blade Europe's Executive Director, Sabrina Barbera, and Blade Europe's Executive Vice President of Business Development, Anne-Pascale
Guedon, overseeing the transition of the Air Carriers' passenger businesses to Blade and will have an important role in launching
Blade's 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.
"These 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," said Rob Wiesenthal, Chief Executive Officer
"Blade's powerful global platform,
technology and brand together with Monacair's 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's commercial services commencing this month with the Monaco Grand Prix,"
said Marco Casiraghi, Co-Founder of Monacair.
Blade's President, Melissa Tomkiel, added,
"Blade continues to cement its position as the world's 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."
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," said Will Heyburn, Chief
Financial Officer of Blade. "Blade will now have unmatched scale in European urban air mobility, further diversifying our overall
Transaction Highlights:
Blade is a technology-powered, global air mobility
platform committed to reducing travel friction by providing cost-effective air transportation alternatives to some of the most congested
ground routes in the U.S. and abroad. Today, the Company predominantly uses helicopters and amphibious aircraft for its passenger routes
and is also one of the largest air medical transporters of human organs for transplant in the world. Its asset-light model, coupled with
its exclusive passenger terminal infrastructure, is designed to facilitate a seamless transition to EVA, enabling lower cost air mobility
to the public that is both quiet and emission-free.
For more information, visit ir.blade.com.
Founded in 1988 by the Stefano Casiraghi with
current shareholders Marco, Andrea, and Pierre Casiraghi; Monacair is a leading Monaco-based helicopter operator, management company,
and maintenance center. Prior to the Pandemic, and as the official supplier of H.S.H. Albert II, Prince of Monaco, Monacair operated 50
scheduled flights per day between Nice Airport and Monaco - the 7-minute flight allows travelers to maximize their time in the Principality
at rates competitive with local car services. Monacair operates a fleet of 7 helicopters from Airbus and Leonardo, capable of servicing
destinations up to 600km from Monaco. In addition to its operations at the Monaco Heliport, Monacair has several facilities across France,
including Archamps in Haute-Savoie, Grimaud in the Var, Annecy airport in Haute-Savoie, Le Castellet airport in the Var and Cannes airport
in the Alpes-Maritimes.
For more information, visit www.monacair.mc.
Founded in 1992 by Dominique Romet, H li
S curit is a leading French helicopter charter company with a fleet of 16 helicopters Airbus, Leonardo and Bell and a team
of more than 40 professional pilots, engineers and ground personnel. From its two operational bases - one in Annecy, serving the
French and Swiss Alps, and the other in Grimaud, near St. Tropez -H li S curit offers private and scheduled
flights to a variety of domestic and international locations, including Switzerland, Italy, the French Riviera, and several alpine
destinations. H li S curit also boasts an in-house maintenance operation, servicing all of its helicopters through
its subsidiary, Rotor Team.
For more information, visit www.helisecurite.fr.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, led by partner
Ariel Harroch in Paris, and Holman Fenwick Willan LLP, led by partner Pierre Fr hling in Paris, acted as legal advisors to Blade.
Deloitte, led by partners Paul Mlynarski in New York and Aur lien Louis in Paris, acted as financial and tax advisors to Blade.
Bird & Bird, led by partner Stan Andreassen,
acted as legal advisor to Monacair SAM and H li S curit . DL Corporate & Regulatory, led by Remi Delforge
in Monaco, acted as Monegasque counsel.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking
statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts and may be identified by the use of words such as "will",
"believe", "could", "continue", "expect", "may", "should", "plan",
and "future" and other similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. These statements, which involve risks and uncertainties,
include statements concerning Blade's intentions as well as its future operations, performance, service offerings, including those
in Europe, profitability, market share, and the closing and impact of Blade's acquisition of the Air Carriers. These statements
are based on management's current expectations and beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events and actual
results may differ materially from the results predicted. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed
or implied in forward-looking statements include: our ability to consummate the acquisition of the Air Carriers as anticipated and to
integrate them into Blade's offerings; the duration and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, failure of the markets for our offerings
to grow as expected, or at all; our ability to attract and retain customers and increase existing customer utilization rates; the inability
or unavailability to use or take advantage of the shift, or lack thereof, to EVA technology or the failure of such technology to deliver
the expected results and cost savings; our ability to successfully enter new markets and launch new offerings; accidents or safety-related
events involving small aircraft that create adverse publicity; the effects of competition; effects of pricing pressures; injuries to our
reputation and brand; challenges to our ability to provide quality customer support at scale; events that cause decreases in our daily
aircraft usage rates and flier utilization rates; shifts in customer preferences, discretionary spending and the ability of our customers
to pay for our services; disruption of operations at the heliports and airports where our operations are concentrated; risks associated
climate change, including potential increased impacts of severe weather and regulatory activity; the availability of aircraft fuel; technology
system failures, defects, errors, or vulnerabilities and cyber-based attacks; our ability to receive favorable placements in mobile application
marketplaces and effectively operate our mobile operating systems and applications; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights;
risks related to our use of open source software; our ability to maintain and expand our facility and infrastructure network; our ability
to obtain additional funding on acceptable terms, or at all; our ability to successfully navigate international expansion; our ability
to identify, complete and successfully integrate additional acquisitions; our ability to manage future growth effectively; our ability
or that of our third-party operators to obtain sufficient insurance at reasonable cost, or at all; the loss of key members of our management
team; disruptions in the operations of our third-party operators, their failure to perform adequately, or their misuse of Blade-branded
aircraft; the loss of our existing relationships with third-party operators or our inability to attract and retain qualified new operators
to meet demand; disruptions or interference in our use of third-party web services; changes in our regulatory environment, including aviation
law and FAA regulations; regulatory obstacles that may block our ability to offer our services in certain jurisdictions on a profitable
basis, or at all; our ability to comply with privacy, data protection, consumer protections and environmental laws and regulations and
changes to such laws and their interpretations; our ability to remediate any material weaknesses or maintain effective an effective system
of disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting; changes in the fair value of our warrants; and other factors beyond
our control; and other factors beyond our control that can be found in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. New
risks and uncertainties arise from time to time, and it is impossible for us to predict these events or how they may affect us. You are
cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made, and, except as required
by law, Blade undertakes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, changes
in expectations, future events or otherwise.