US air taxi developer Joby Aviation has agreed to pay at least $90 million to acquire Blade Air Mobility’s passenger-transportation business, which markets and sells air travel on helicopters and other aircraft operated by partner companies.
Blade does not operate aircraft.
The business to be acquired posted a thin profit in 2024 after a loss in 2023. The deal excludes Blade’s more-profitable medical-transport business.
California-based Joby, which has been working on the difficult project of developing an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, says the move will provide it with a vast base of customers it eventually hopes will travel by air taxi.
Blade, based in New York City, already provides services similar to those envisioned by Joby and competing developers of air taxis, though does so using helicopters.
“With access to the infrastructure they have secured and the loyal customer base they have developed, we will be in the best possible position to launch our quiet, electric aircraft as soon as certification is secured, ” Joby chief executive JoeBen Bevirt says of the Blade acquisition.
Blade “acts as an air charter broker” and has an “asset-light business” model, meaning it connects consumers with aircraft operators, the company says in securities filings and on its website. It also has a “customer-facing app”.
”The passenger business acquired by [Joby] shall consist of Blade’s business of offering, selling, promoting, marketing, planning, booking, brokering, coordinating and arranging the transportation of passengers on aircraft operated by other entities and related ground-transportation services,” Blade says.
The business consists of a “short distance” segment (flights as far as 100 miles) and a smaller charter-jet segment. Combined, those segments turned a $3.6 million profit in 2024, with $102 million in revenue, up 3.3% year on year, securities filings show. Blade’s passenger business lost $5 million in 2023.
The acquisition deal calls for California-based Joby to pay $90 million in either cash or Joby shares to buy the passenger business. Joby will later pay Blade up to $35 million if the business meets “employee retention and financial performance targets”, Joby says.
“Blade passenger operations are expected to continue as normal, with the business continuing to be led by Blade founder and CEO Rob Wiesenthal as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Joby,” the company says.
Joby will not acquire Blade’s medical transportation business, which will remain a separate public company.
That business generated $147 million in revenue last year, up 16% year on year, and turned a $19.3 million adjusted profit, up 79%. At the end of 2024, Blade owned nine Hawker 800 business jets assigned to its medical business, securities filings show.
