Wheels Up CEO Outlines Pricing: $500 Monthly Signature Membership, Charter Rates of About $8,000–$12,000 per Flight Hour

Wheels Up, a private aviation company founded in the US around 13 years ago, has grown from a short-haul startup flying King Air turboprops in the northeastern US into a global charter and membership business. Its fleet now centers on Embraer Phenom and Bombardier Challenger jets, while its charter operation arranges flights on aircraft run by third-party operators worldwide.

The current model took shape after Delta Air Lines invested in Wheels Up in October 2023, becoming its largest shareholder and commercial partner. George Mattson, who had served on Delta's board for 11 years, became CEO afterward. He has now set out how the company prices its offering.

The Signature membership, launched in September 2025, costs $500 a month, with a separate deposit for future flights. Mattson says it has attracted more than 1,500 members in its first year. The monthly fee is not the cost of flying: members pay for journeys from funds deposited with Wheels Up, and the program tracks the balance in dollars rather than allocating hours on a particular aircraft type. Members who run out of funds can replenish the balance, and any funds left at the end of the contract term roll over to the next term without penalty.

Customers can also book individual charter flights without paying the monthly fee or keeping a deposit; for travelers outside the US this is generally the most viable option. Wheels Up has teams at London's Gatwick and elsewhere in Europe and around the world, and says its global charter network includes more than 7,000 safety-vetted and verified aircraft operated by third parties.

Mattson says two things drive trip cost: the aircraft type and the length of the trip. He puts the indicative hourly price of an Embraer Phenom 300 at around $8,000–$8,500, and a Bombardier Challenger at approximately $11,000–$12,000 per flight hour.

He estimates a New York–Florida flight could cost in the low $20,000s, and New York–Los Angeles around $45,000–$50,000. On transatlantic journeys the aircraft would generally be larger, but the hourly rate could be lower because cost is spread across a longer flight. Mattson describes the company's premise as 'sensible private aviation'.

The Delta partnership lets travelers combine private and commercial legs, for example chartering a Wheels Up aircraft to New York's JFK to connect to a Delta flight overseas. Mattson cites an example in which a private flight to JFK could save a group of four or five travelers around eight hours versus a long scheduled connection, for approximately $10,000 extra.

Customers, whether members or charter clients, currently arrange these itineraries through their Wheels Up team, which coordinates the legs and transfers. The longer-term ambition is to offer these combinations and their prices in Delta's own booking channels.

The structure Mattson describes separates a low recurring fee from the money that actually pays for flying. In that arrangement the $500 monthly charge buys access and guaranteed availability, while the cost of a trip is drawn from a dollar balance. Pricing then follows the same drivers as plain charter: the aircraft type and the length of the trip. Membership programs of this kind are, in effect, a booking and commitment layer over charter economics rather than a different cost base.

The quoted ranges also show how hourly rates compress with distance. A larger aircraft on a transatlantic sector can carry a lower hourly rate than a smaller one on a short hop, because the cost is spread across more flight hours. That makes headline hourly figures a poor basis for comparing trips of different length.

The combined private-and-commercial itinerary is currently assembled by hand through a Wheels Up team. The stated ambition to sell those combinations inside Delta's own channels is the development that would turn a service-desk arrangement into a standard product.