Elite Traveler Summer 2024

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SEAMLESS TRAVEL Wouldn’t it be great if you could seamlessly integrate private fl ights and scheduled airlines? Where American Airlines, United Airlines and Lufthansa Group all failed, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian and former board member George Mattson provide an integrated airline-private aviation solution. Mattson took over from Kenny Dichter last September after Delta led a group of investors that contributed $500m when the private fl ight provider Wheels Up hit a fi nancial wall. Bastian says that Wheels Up was “a victim of its own success.” And that scale — over 10,000 members and its position as the fourth-largest operator in the US, the world’s largest market for private jets — made it attractive for the Atlanta based airline. While Covid scuttled initial plans to coordinate e ff orts, with expenses exploding as Delta Wheels Up struggled to integrate multiple acquisitions, it continued to post record revenues into 2023. Now, the goal is to tap into Delta’s roster of over 40,000 corporate accounts to balance out the leisure focus of Wheels Up’s current members. That means putting Delta’s hundreds of corporate salespeople on the job, pitching private aviation. The idea is, you can fl y Wheels Up in the US, fl y Delta One business suites to Europe, Asia or South America, and then travel from there via charter fl ights arranged by broker Air Partner, one of the private fl ight provider’s acquisitions. Mattson said he has had discussions with Delta partners Air France/KLM and Virgin Atlantic Airways about integrating private jet options as well. Of course, American Airlines was a founding partner in Flexjet in the 1990s before selling its interest. United Airlines’s attempt to start a private jet division was scuttled after protests from its unions, and Lufthansa fi nally gave up on its Lufthansa Private Jet project after over adecade. Whether Bastian and Mattson can fi nd success where others have failed, their e ff orts deserve a nod on our list of innovators.

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