Wheels Up completes shift to two-type fleet of Challenger 300 and Phenom 300 jets

Wheels Up Experience has retired the mixed turboprop and jet fleet it used to operate. The US fractional ownership company now flies two aircraft families: Bombardier Challenger 300 midsize jets and Embraer Phenom 300 light jets. Its new membership model is built around that smaller fleet.

Chief executive George Mattson began the changes over the past two years, after earlier restructurings aimed at improving the company's finances.

It is not yet known whether the overhaul will succeed, or when. Wheels Up is expected to give more detail with its third-quarter results in the coming weeks. The company has said little publicly since its second-quarter figures came out, when Mattson described the business as having been reshaped over two years, with the fleet streamlined and upgraded and cost cuts made across the company.

Wheels Up is based near Atlanta and is 36% owned by Delta Air Lines. It listed in 2021 at a valuation of $2.1 billion, during a period of strong demand for private flying. At the end of 2021 it owned or leased 180 aircraft.

Demand has since fallen and the company has struggled to adjust. It recorded cumulative losses of $1.9 billion between 2021 and 2025, on revenue of $736 million in that final year, and lost a further $190 million in the first six months of the following year.