Wheels Up Stock Flies High On First Day Of Trading

On its first day of trading under its new name and ticker after a SPAC merger, shares of Wheels Up UP are soaring.

What Happened: “We now have 170 planes in our first-party business, another 170 planes in second-party business,” Wheels Up CEO Kenny Dichter said.

Dichter told CNBC that the future of Wheels Up is technology and growing from its existing private aviation business.

Wheels Up hired Greg Greeley to help lead the business. Dichter mentioned that Greeley created Amazon Prime for Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN.

“This is going to look more like Uber and Airbnb than an airline,” Dichter said.

Dichter mentioned other business lines the company could get in including water travel and space.

“I’m looking at grinding this thing out quarter to quarter,” Dichter said when asked about the stock price. Dichter added he won’t look at the daily stock price.

Wheels Up has a 90% retention rate for its main business line and Dichter said the $25,000 amount is a modest spend for private aviation.

The company is working on offering products for people who spend between $0 and $25,000.

Shares Jump: During the interview, shares of Wheels Up began trading higher, which was highlighted by the hosts on CNBC.

Benzinga’s “SPACs Attack” highlighted the movement of shares on Wednesday and the lower float as shares began trading under the new ticker.

“Fifty-six percent of shares traded in at net asset value,” SPACs Attack host Chris Katje said.

Shares were halted and hit a high of $14 on Wednesday.

During the company’s SPAC merger vote, 55.8% of shares were redeemed. WheelsUp waived a condition of minimum cash that it failed to meet.

Price Action: Shares of Wheels Up are up 16.31% to $11.55 Wednesday at publication.