Blade Air Mobility, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLDE) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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And so one of the great opportunities that we have here is that not only do we have the entire ecosystem kind of from passenger technology to the cockpit, have all this captive infrastructure, we recently announced that we are going to be having terminals in Terminal 1, 2, and Nice behind the tarmac security to get people straight to their planes and bypassing airport security, the strength of our airport business here in New York, our leisure market. There is no one bigger that can accommodate these aircraft, and we have all the parts that they need in order to make sure that these things are flying, flying safely, and taking a lot of passengers.

Matt Schneider: Great. The next question is on TOPS. Will, can you provide just an update on TOPS?

Will Heyburn: Yes. Overall, we are getting great customer feedback, and that’s really our number one focus right now. We are not going to be providing a quarter-to-quarter update on new customer acquisition, but we have got a great pipeline. We do expect to onboard several incremental new customers throughout the balance of the year. It’s not going to be a huge contributor for the fiscal year 2024, as we have talked about previously. But we think it sets us up in a really advantaged position strategically, moving us up the value chain with organ transportation and enabling us to have an open door to expand in some of those other critical cargo end markets and ground transportation markets for our customers, like specimen transfers, eventually being able to help out with things like kidneys. So, we really think it’s an important plank of the strategy and we are happy with the results so far.

Matt Schneider: Thank you. The next question is about the strategic value in Nora, the medical competitor. Will, can you address that?

Will Heyburn: Sure. We think it’s a fantastic business. We are always evaluating all growth opportunities, both organic and inorganic. Nora has built a great company. We are particularly impressed with their ground business. It’s inspired us to offer some of those same services to the customers that we have across the country. And we think we are already seeing the benefits of that. In this particular case, it seems like it went for a great multiple, and we have determined that our best path forward for growth was to continue the organic strategy. But it’s a great business and we are impressed by what they have built. And I think it’s a good company.

Rob Wiesenthal: I think let me just go a little deeper on that, just to make it clear to the people on the call. Knorr was sold, I guess about how long ago, I think probably in the past year. It is something that we did evaluate, and we were always thinking about build versus buy. And frankly, I think this is one where we felt more comfortable continuing to build our business, which turned out to be a good opportunity, good outcome for us. If you take especially looking at our recent performance and frankly, when after passing on this opportunity, when it’s sold to private equity for kind of 14x to 15x forward multiples which is what I believe it’s sold for that’s obviously not something that is not confirmed that makes me feel very comfortable with the kind of value created on our own medical side.

Matt Schneider: Great. Well, that was the last question we are going to take from the platform. Rob, do you have any closing remarks?

Rob Wiesenthal: So, I thank everybody on the Blade team for really putting together a terrific, building towards a terrific quarter. Obviously, the performance on the medical side speaks for itself. This is historically a slow quarter for passenger, and I think we are really in strong shape on passenger as we come into the high season here, and we look forward to answering any questions. You can obviously email us at investors@belay.com. If you have any further questions and we look forward to working with you guys in the future and continuing to perform. Thanks for your time.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating and you may now disconnect.

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