Strata Critical Medical, Inc. (SRTA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

I'm Itay Michaeli, and it's a pleasure to kick off day 3 of our conference with Blade for a fireside chat, and also an overview of the company for those who are newer to the company. Very pleased to have from Blade, the company's Founder and CEO, Rob Wiesenthal, and we're going to do a fireside chat. If you have questions, feel free to raise your hands. I think we're going to kick off first with a video, and then to sit back and relax, then we'll kick off the session. So... [Presentation]

Awesome. Thank you. Good, great video. Rob, first, thanks again for being here. Great to see you.

Thanks for having me.

Maybe for those who are still new to the Blade and coming up to speed. I was hoping we could kick it off just with an overview of the story as well as kind of where you were when you went public and what's changed and where you are today?

Sure. So we started the company in 2014. This was after many, many years, over a decade at Sony as CFO of the Americas and also Head of Corporate Development Globally. We spent a lot of time working on lithium-ion battery strategies and relationships. And obviously, the consumer electronics business at the time was probably the biggest user lithium-ion batteries, whether it be in laptops, cameras and such. But it was clear that the technology in the battery side, which was already moving into cars on the ground was going to quickly move into the air. And that battle is going to move into the air and there were people starting to really move beyond the experimentation phase, you saw drones, things like that. And so the idea was that at some point, there would be a transition between helicopters and these electric vertical aircrafts. So we built this kind of ecosystem in order to accommodate helicopters today, but enable a very fluid transition to EVA, when it was time. And that was built on 3 pillars. One is an exclusive terminal infrastructure that's at heliports and airports, where you can process passengers, assess luggage, to security, time there are certain areas where we can have flights moving every 5 minutes. So turning those aircraft very quickly is very important. We have a technology stack that goes from consumer to cockpit. So that's everything from the consumer-facing app, where you can book instantaneously any of the routes that we have all over the world and really focusing on routes that were scalable and profitable using conventional rotorcraft today, and we really look for routes that were either very, very congested cities or geographically contested. So like in Southern Europe where you have mountains and such where you can't draw a straight line with the car, but you can draw a straight line with an aircraft, and we like to see things like in New York City, when we fly to the airport for $195 or $95 at airport passage fees, both Uber Black and UberX with the past. We're turning to our drives into 5-minute place. That's an example of one of those kinds of routes. Then the brand and then the customer base and now we have hundreds of thousands of flyers. We're the largest kind of vertical aircraft or operating urban arability company in the world with respect to moving commuters and travelers on these short hops. And -- so we're in North America and Canada and the U.S. We're in India, we're in the Southern Europe. And so we now have that footprint, if we think all of the right routes for this phase of urban arability before you get to electric vertical aircraft. And what's interesting is that we are constantly looking like how can -- looking at how can we kind of maximize the use of these aircraft and what are the other use cases and then we got into the medical business, largely because in New York City, the Langone Hospital, one of our Board members had a relationship with literally sits on top of the BLADE Lounge East. And we started getting to the organ delivery business, which now represents over half of our business. And that is essentially hospitals that need real-time information and delivery of organs and moving doctors to places where they do extraction and moving back to where they do transplants. It's -- as I said, it's about half of our business right now in revenues. There's no marketing cost. They are long-term contracts. We're paid by hospitals, not insurance companies. Third quarter, I think we're up about 173% year-over-year. It is growing incredibly fast, and we're the largest in the United States. And what's interesting about that is that the same helicopters that are being used for our passenger business are being used at night. So operators can amortize the cost of their pilots, their insurance, their hangers, their maintenance. And so what happens is that their costs go down on an hourly basis, and that can accrue to us on both the medical and passenger side. So they fit really well to you. That's kind of like the snapshot of what we're trying to do. And obviously, doing a lot of tests, we just did a test the very first tested beta in the New York City area, working on relationships with all these EVA manufacturers, so we can make sure that we're where we need to be when this transition happens.

Absolutely. That's a great overview and lots going on, so congrats on all the progress. I wonder just honing on the MediMobility business that you talked about, organic growth has been strong. At a high level, kind of where do you see that business in the next 3, 4, 5 years, what the competitive landscape look like? Pretty sure, you have a different kind of margin profile as well, maybe a bit more stable as well? Maybe just talk a little bit more about the outlook there?

Sure. So when we take a look at the medical business, the market really competing with mom and pops. And I think part of the reason why we got a lot of this business was that we really work in hard what our core companies are with logistics, recovery, which has been something goes wrong or something is delayed, 24/7 customer service and really the kind of military precision that we are doing on the passenger side kind of moving that over to the medical side, and then also giving transparency in terms of chain of custody, where that organ is, where those doctors are and really reducing the price. So before Blade, we would see hospitals in New York City pay $2,500 for an ambulance to really like literally drive 35 minutes through Manhattan or pending another 20 minutes to [indiscernible] Airport, charter literally a Gulf stream fly to Philadelphia, get another ambulance with the doctors to the hospital, extract a organ and on SPAC, [indiscernible] another ambulance, that can be a $65,000 trip easily. We can land literally from hospital to hospital, take off in a helicopter with doctors from Langone move fly to Philadelphia, land on-site, eliminating oftentimes the ambulance, definitely limiting the jets on all these shorter missions. And so that would be about a $4,000 to $6,000 trip depending on waiting time and other factors. So we cut the cost dramatically. We improve outcomes by doing this in a more speedy fashion. We're competing with, as I said, [indiscernible] don't have the technology, don't have the 24/7 resources, don't have the access to aircraft, which we have tons of access to aircraft. So they want guarantee, when they -- when a hospital calls and wants an organ moved or wants team to go to an extraction, there's no like, I'm sorry, I can't get you an aircraft. You have to be able to provide. And so I think it was that level of professionals. I mean, right now, we're in the teens in terms of market share. I see a very rapid path to getting to about over 50% market share. We look at acquisitions, and I think the team feels that these are contracts that we win over time and that would necessarily need to pay a multiple for it. So as long as the growth is there, I'm very, very comfortable with it. And then in terms of where it's going, there's no question as we trans -- coming to transition from rotorcraft to EVA, if you think about drones, which will be the very first type of EVA, which will be FAA-approved now they're approved now, but we have to get to the point where there's no line of sight required, since we're moving a lot of organs without doctors, drones are fantastic method of moving organs that doctor is very cost efficient and a great use case. So we're spending a lot of time looking on that.

But did the entry of drones potentially increased competition? Because you mentioned your access to aircraft being a significant competitive advantage. How does the entry of drones' kind of change out, if at all?

Well, if you think about it, just like today, and the business to support drones use anybody can buy a drone. There are drones that are being used for site inspections, there are drones that are used -- on films. And it's really the layer -- and right now, there are people with aircraft that could easily do these missions, but it's all that wrapper that ecosystem you put around it from the 24/7 customer service, we have people on the ground. So the same lounges that you'll go into the terminals, the Blade terminals, we have people there, doctors can go there, they could wait taken if it's in the middle when it would be a meal, they can be fed. Our team can go help with this direction, put it into our ambulances that we do not -- have as a result of the Trinity acquisition. So all this infrastructure, technology, 24/7 on the phone customer service and that I guess I said tech stack, you really need that. You can't just kind of go out and buy a plane or buy a drone and try to do yourself.

Perfect. Wanted to [indiscernible] questions feel free to raise hands. I want to just zoom in on some recent news of RedBird Capital announced a large position in the company. Hoping you can just talk about the partnership there and what they bring to Blade?

Sure. So I've known the founding partner RedBird, Gerry Cardinale for probably over 2 decades when he was at Goldman Sachs, and I was at Sony, we worked on a lot of deals together. He has an extremely successful fund that is both in -- has a good position in aviation and a very strong position in live sports and also as an investment in beta, which was one of our first EVA partners. And I think given what's happened with the macroeconomic environment for small-cap stocks, he was in our cap table since being a seed investor individually and then RedBird came in during our going public transaction. I mean, I think he saw the same thing we're seeing today, which is a strong company, strong balance sheet, global footprint, very recession proof on the medical side, a lot of -- $200 million of cash, no debt, really undervalued opportunity. We were not willing to issue stock at these kind of prices, obviously, and he went out in the open market and accumulated a position. And now we put together a working group where we're looking at using his numerous aircraft assets to see how we can supplement our medical side. And then also, he recently bought the soccer team AC Milan. And we already fly because we did a roll-up of 3 of the largest helicopter company retail businesses in Southern Europe, Monaco, Cannes, the Saint Tropez, Courchevel and Milan. So one of the great use cases for our live events. A lot of people are going in the same place at the same time, it's not only great for visibility, but it's also great to kind of prove the air mobility thesis. So we're thrilled to have an investor with a great track record, take a sizable stake, and we hope to do a lot of stuff with them. That's just -- that's strategic.

Perfect. Maybe to shift gears to the passenger side of the business, maybe the other half of the revenue. Maybe give us a sense of the footprint you have today in short distance, in particular different routes you operate? How do you choose routes as well? You mentioned I think earlier that you think you're sort of set with routes with this phase of kind of the [indiscernible] journey. Maybe talk a bit more about that business?

I really do think when I look at, I've said to you over many years now, you're never going to see is a pre-EVA world, a globe with dots all over the world where Blade operates. We want the really juicy routes. Those are cities, very concentrated, lots of density, as I said, lots of congestion, and we want it to be geographically contested, if possible, if we have in Southern Europe. So the opportunities are -- the biggest markets in the world are no question, Northeast quarter, where we're very large. Western Canada, Vancouver, where what's interesting -- was always interesting to me about Western Canada, Vancouver was -- this is -- helicopters are a way of life, 40% of people we fly are government employees. There are no bridges, they're very slow ferries, you either take a helicopter or depending on the weather and the time of the year, you can -- maybe you can take a Seaplane. So it's just a way of life. It's just another form of transportation. And so I see a lot of opportunity there, and I really do like the way it fits into the kind of the whole transportation alternative mix there. And then in Southern Europe, definitely well accepted, nice mix between business and leisure. Weather is terrific. Obviously, so you don't have a lot of days where you're really not flying for weather. And then in India, same thing, but very different in the sense that really weak infrastructure, obviously, returning 5-hour drives between Mumbai to Pune and Shirdi into half hour flights. And a very strong population that can afford the product right now, which is, I think, commensurate with what we're charging right now. It's a joint venture. It's in an earlier phase, but it's something we feel good about for the long-term. And that's really where it is today and where I think it's going to be until we start rolling these new aircraft out. But in terms of growth, I take a look at the New York City airport business where we're competitive with Uber Black and UberX with an airport pass, 28 million people use private transportation to go between the New York City airports and Manhattan. So forget all the other boroughs right, New Jersey, Connecticut air [indiscernible] Westchester take out all the public transportation, take out shared buses, things like that. So these are really rental cars, ridesharing and your own car. Last time, I think we gave a number we were north of 25,000 run rate. We're obviously growing. So we're higher than that now. So when I take a look at that opportunity, that gap, we don't have to get 25% of those -- we can get 5%, 10%, 1%, whatever it is, there's a lot of growth coming our way with that. And now that we have a relationship with JetBlue, where if you buy a Mint Ticket on JetBlue, any Mint Ticket to or from JFK, you get a Blade airport flight that gets you to or from the airport. If you're a Mosaic or Mosaic+, you get a certain number of free flights a year. If you're TrueBlue, you get discounts. And hopefully, you'll be seeing a lot more airline integration because I think the sooner, we can start really bundling it and having a part of that journey. I think you're going to see really enormous take-up rates. And then I think in Europe, that business was really because they kind of had this dominant position, all these 3 companies, they didn't really invest in technology. They didn't invest in marketing. There were 3 companies, Héli Sécurité, Azur and Monacair. We're building great lounges there, and it's all going to be under common brands. And I'll tell you right now, last -- even last year when the deal wasn't -- it was closed, but not fully integrated or went right before closing. We participate in the Monaco Grand Prix, flying people from these to Monaco because we're the only place you can land in Monaco. And the brand did really well there, and I was very surprised then and even now how many of our bookings for Europe are coming from U.S. customers. So there's definitely -- because we started so early with airport, everyone thinks about airport as oh, this is a New York business, this is a very concentrated in New York. People fly to New York from all over the world, and those are all Blade customers. And so when we open it in another city elsewhere, they think about us.

Thanks for the detail, Rob, want to kind of go a bit deeper into adoption and particularly around what you're seeing at a high level from a repeat buyer, as opposed to kind of new to Blade. So both adoption of new flyers that you opened routes just new to mature, which as well as those once they get in or bypass, how long are they -- what sort of the usage rate that you're seeing?

Yes. Well, sometimes the numbers are cladder that is growing so quickly. So we have a lot of first-time flyers. But I think generally, we -- someone who starts with like a very -- a product that can be used for both leisure and for business and they live kind of they live in New York, so they're probably flying about -- an average about 6 times a year. Within the -- for first 6 months kind of like 1.4x, they're doing it. So they're definitely a big cohort that's flying a second time. But again, like the growth of new people and also people who may not use it as much were coming that one trip to New York. And then also, you have a lot of people who are on the leisure side globally, who are using it a way to kind of start their trip because starting -- starting your trip in 2 hours of traffic isn't great. You're seeing the Freedom Tower and the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and Brooklyn Bridge and the Barclays Center. So kind of like it has that -- you really have a cynic aspect, which I think we've done a lot of surveys, and there's definitely maybe about 25% of the people are saying, I'm not really doing it a traffic. I just want to -- be in helicopter and enjoy some of that route, some of that, but that is not that imports me, especially, you see that on the leisure side. And so a lot of those international flyers, so bigger groups that are more on the leisure side than business. And then business right now, on our survey, 60% of the people who fly us to airport are saying they're doing it for business as much as we hear about business travel leaving, it doesn't look that way to us. Look, there's no question there's a lot of people who are remote, who are coming in regularly have a little more disposable income in terms of transportation. There are people that may be living remotely who come to the home office, so to speak, every so often. And look, we're competitive with grounds. And I think the corporate sales that we're doing, I think that's starting to reach fruition. We do that on a bottoms-up basis really by going after the employees, and then eventually these things get expensed, and they see the price and the kind of CFO relents, and that's working well as well. And then also, if you think about New York City on the West side of Manhattan, we are part of Hudson Yards essentially, where we have 50,000 people living in with working and recreating who can just literally walk 2 minutes to it. So I think that's very interesting. I think in Canada as they were very late with COVID restrictions ending the remote work is starting stepping out -- subsiding a little bit [indiscernible] we fly the big route there is Vancouver to Victoria. Victoria is kind of like the Washington, D.C. of the province. So a lot of back and forth there. And in Europe, it's much more year-round. I mean I was very shocked to see like on skiing this year, very early between Geneva and Courchevel, extremely high end, latter charter. And again, in Monaco is definitely a financial center there, but also big in leisure, and then you have everything from the Cannes Lions Festival to Cannes Film Festival, Monaco Grand Prix, Yasho [indiscernible] event after event conference after conference. And so we're getting them in all ways. They're getting it through travel agencies, they're seeing it through the conference providers. And then also, it just -- it's much more ingrained and known that this is the way you can kind of traverse the coast very easily.

Terrific. So how should we think about growth in the passenger side of the business over the next few years? And maybe within that, Rob, how do you think about customer acquisition, marketing, your premium brand and I think -- so I think -- probably asked you this question before, but maybe latest thoughts on a kind of organic growth, but then how much do you want to lean in to grow through promotions, get them in the first time, and then try to kind of create a recurring user?

Well, I take a look at the growth coming from -- look, there's still a lot of word of mouth. I heard from a friend this and that. We're very omnichannel in terms of marketing and sometimes go places where people don't go. You don't see a lot of people thinking about television or print intelligence worked really well for us in airport. You cannot walk through pretty much any terminal in Newark Airport or JFK without seeing our digital signage, and then also marketing partnerships like JetBlue. And then we're working on now is distribution. And so again, this concept of bundling. So when you're booking your trip, you're saying, I mean I'm going to click the box and get a helicopter to JFK with an arrival return. On Europe, we -- sorry, on the West Coast for Silicon Valley in L.A., we really invented -- reinvented the red eye. We have a lot of companies that say, you know what, before Blade that guys leaving it like kind of 2 in the afternoon, checking its hotels. Now they can fly the red eye instead of like going through all that commuter traffic at 6 in the morning in New York. They're flying there. They're getting to do their hotel about 7 in the morning, they're using our Marriott points for whatever early check-in, and they can go to a meeting at 9:00 and not look like they went out in a vendor all night. So...

Let's talk about recession downturn. Obviously, I think there's a broad concern. A lot of questions around this conference as well the companies. How does Blade get effective? What are you seeing today? And kind of how you think about Blade to a maybe a hardware?

Sure. Well, I will tell you this third quarter, we actually raised passenger prices in the Northeast outside airport, about 30% to leisure routes, and our revenues still increased meaningfully. But I think the most important part about Blade with respect to the recession is with over 50% of our business being medical, an organ transplant is about as recession-proof as you can get it. We have passed through cost on fuel increases, which only really impacts more of the fixed link side because helicopters, you may not know only burn about 240 gallons of jet fuel an hour. So a 5-minute flights to the airport isn't a really big part of our cost structure on the helicopter side. And so I think one of the great things for this company is that we're just going to see continued growth. Also is because of the technology on the medical side, the definition of an organ that's suitable for transplant is getting wider and wider every day. And the definition of a person or a patient, who is suitable and for a transplant, it can actually it's a good chance -- better than a good chance of recovery is getting wider and wider every day, which means you're going to see more -- the growth in transplants themselves are going to increase, and also technology to allow those organs to last longer. So we're now flying longer distances than we would do before. And we're doing basically heart, liver, lung. And I also see growth in kidney in the sense that kidney is actually can be out of the body for a very long time, even a day or even 2 and can actually fly commercial, so to speak. And they work on a last flight out business, but I think they can benefit from our logistics as well on the kidney business is obviously a huge business, but the growth we see just in what we're doing right now is just tremendous. But no, I think we probably the best position in terms of the recession of anybody in our peer group.

Are you doing kidney yet? Or is that a...

No.

So that's a...

Like, I should say that. We do do kidney, there's certain instances in which there needs to be rapid response. But in terms of the kind of the kidney work where you can be out of the bottle for 24 hours? Or isn't that kind of intensity in terms of when you have -- which is usually on the patient side, that's a business we're looking really hard to happen on an yet.

I want to touch upon talk about MediMobility and passenger and I kind of wanted to connect it to for a moment and holding on the benefits the network derived from that synergy and the extent to which you can therefore offer lower cost in the future to create sort of a bigger competitive data. I think you touched about a little bit before, but maybe focus a bit more on the synergy. And as you grow, are you able to then just reduce cost even pre-EVA on these network benefits?

Well, I think that -- it's very interesting. There are a lot of Blade operators. And again, we're not a marketplace. So this is not like Uber, you don't go out and take your phone and put on a section cup on the windshield of your helicopter and say, let me do a couple of trips of Blade. It doesn't work that way. We have 29 or more very highly integrated operators. We have a 7-member safety team. You get highly vetted for safety in terms of everything from maintenance to your FAA records, your pilot hours, hours on airframe, for aircraft, it's very intense. You have to use our tech platform for an operator dashboard were communicated with our logistics that we can make sure we're using the right tale numbers and getting the most optimized missions from aircraft that are in the right place. And not unlike Walmart, we have an accounting dashboard where we invoice meal after a trip, and we pay you within 5 days. You don't need customer service. You're not working with credit card declines; you don't need people on the ground. So their cost structure is lower there. Then they have an idea from our previous years with them or sometimes we'll make hourly commitments that we make sure those are really low that we can always beat them, how many hours they're going to do. And then if they're part of our medical program, they then know those aircraft can be used at night. So they have to crew for night. But again, they're amortizing all these costs such as hangers, insurance, pilots, maintenance over 24 hours. And there is no company that can use their aircraft for 24 hours besides Blade period end stop. And so it fits really well. So their costs go down, and then we can negotiate prices in which they can still have a decent margin, and then we can enhance our margin. And that happens both on the rotorcraft side and the fixed wing side. So -- and which also allows for better call out times in the passenger side. So you need an aircraft at 6 in the morning, there's pretty much no one you can call period, at least the Northeast and the U.S. And I would say in Europe, you can call us because again, the same pilots, the same aircraft, people are working 24/7. So typically, before Blade, you could call it 7:00, if you had a 2-hour call out time and you'll get a flight at 9:00. That doesn't happen with us. So we -- in New York, we can scramble an aircraft on 20 minutes on demand, and then probably a little longer in the overnight, but the only one that can do it at all in the overnight.

Perfect. If you have any questions feel free, we can definitely get to you. Want to touch upon -- is there -- right in the middle -- we can get you a microphone over here.

All right. Just thinking about what is it, transition -- mobile transitions is probably what I'd call it. So you get off your plane, you get into a helicopter, fly to Manhattan, and then you've got to move from the helipads to wherever you're going. How much -- the 5-, 10-minute flight time is great, but how much time does it really save, if you're waiting for -- at the other end, et cetera?

Well, let's talk about that. So in terms -- obviously, this multimodality is very important because you're not starting or ending at a Blade terminal. And then when you land at an airport, you're not starting in where we land the helicopter. So we have captive cars and staff at each of these airports. So when you get off your helicopter, you get right in a car that takes you straight to your terminal. And with certain airlines, at least on an arrival, they can actually -- because you're "clean" because of TSA, you've already gone through your security, you could get off the aircraft and get on the jetway go down the stairs into a car for an airline that goes straight to a Blade helicopter. And then on arrival, which is very important, we have 2 services. One is a stage ridesharing car or our own Ground Connect Service. So the moment you get out of landing at BLADE Lounge Manhattan, you can have a car waiting for you. And with a stage cars like a very minor fee, same we do for Uber. But because of where these heliports are located, isn't the greatest place to get a car. So usually 20 mints advance will have one waiting. So you literally waste no time you get off, you get in your car. That's a choice. You don't have to buy it. I think it's about $40, but we have a lot of people using that. And then also, there's definitely a zone of where people know where they're saving time. So if you're -- it's some of the part of town in Manhattan were like BLADE Lounge East, BLADE Lounge West and BLADE Lounge Wall Street, if you're another borough, obviously, you're in Meadows, Queens. We're not going to have any help. Most places in Manhattan probably makes sense, especially during peak rush hour. But you're right, you're not -- if you're at Hudson Yards, you walk across the street or you're in Chelsea, you have a 5-minute walk and such, you don't have outside those zones or in the east side, if you're not kind of East of Park Avenue, your kind of in that midtown zone, you're not saving much time. But still even when you carve out 20 minutes for that trip, it's random. And we survey our flyers, people are saying certainty of arrival, trumps how much time on saving. So in other words, when you -- certain areas, you could go to these airports, it could be 40 minutes, it could be 3 hours. And they just want to know when they're getting there. And I find it really interesting. So I'll go to these lounges, a lot of these terminals. I'm going to talk to passengers, and they'll say they're on a 3:00 flight. And it's 1/3 and like, why are you here so early in it's like, you know what, I just want to go to the airport. Why don't we relax, why don't I work on my laptop at the lounge? And that's it. I just know when I'm going, this is part of my process. Well, we have other people have a 4:30 flight and they'll leave at 4:05. Go -- have clear TSA, probably then go straight to the gate and times you end a cup of coffee and like we have people who play it both ways. So it's not -- the use cases are interesting. It's not always for that. Then to the point you made in an EVA world, the big unlock is quiet. As much as we love electric as well as less green. The big opportunity for Blade and Blade investors is the fact they're quiet because the reason we don't have our landing zones is because helicopters are allowed. So if -- and cities now know, having spent a fair amount of time with the governor, Mayor Adams and the city, they know in order to be competitive in City 2.0 that they have to have an Urban Air Mobility strategy. So once we get to this point where we just tested the beta in the Greater New York City area that we can actually fly them and they're certified, if we had 1 landing zone South of Central Bark, South in Manhattan, North of 43rd Street, I believe that the network effects of that would create an ecosystem in New York City that could be $0.5 billion business, because you're not only flying from Manhattan the airport, you're flying a West side to Midtown -- East side to Midtown, Midtown to Wall Street, Midtown to the -- all the 3 airports. So it's kind of this network effects. And that's what the great unlock is for is. That's where the exponential growth happens when we are working with one of the providers. And we have deals with most of them. And so with a lot of investors early on said, I don't know who's going to win, but you're going to be using them. And for those manufacturers to be successful, they have to get to automotive scale it to be very difficult for them, not for us -- to not have us use their aircraft. So we're excited about that. And that's -- and if they want to try to do themselves, they're going to need terminals, they're going to need a brand, they're going to need customers. They need a whole lot of stuff. This was not easy even on the rotorcraft side, but I think we always use this analogy. It is like those early years of Netflix when they are moving DVDs in bags, what streaming was to Netflix, which has unlocked everything on a distribution basis, EVA, electric vertical aircraft or a Blade, that's where we'll see the growth.

That's great. Thanks for the question. I don't want to touch on EVA. So congrats on the recent that flight demo standard [indiscernible] things went well there. How should investors think about the timing? What's your latest talk on the timing on post these certifications of how quickly the scenario you outlined; $0.5 billion opportunity can become a reality for Blade? And are you already taking steps now to prepare for it? Or is it kind of still wait and see, and then plenty of time before you have?

Yes. I mean the whole DNA of the business and our work with our captive infrastructure was to make this a seamless transition. And we believe there's going to be a cohabitation phase, which a lot of people aren't thinking about, which means that you'll have kind of helicopters and EVA living in Harmony. It's not a light switch. And especially when you think about the rollouts of aircraft in the first year, the tolerance for the -- what the indications are on the aircraft in terms of engines and battery life and all those things. So those tolerances are going to be very low. So there's been a lot of time at early first year, 2 years where those aircraft will be grounded because there -- it's the first time they're in the wild. They want to make sure everything safe, everything is okay. And so we've got a really, really high tolerances, actually we should say low tolerances for anything that isn't right in terms of any kind of specifications. It could be everything in terms of the wind that it could handle, it could be the battery life, it could be anything. So we will always need a helicopter for backup for that, but it will be in the ecosystem at some point. So I think we've always been much more conservative. I mean we've been in this business long enough to remember people were saying 2021, 2022, 2023, when we went public, we were saying about 2025. And I think 20 people are still saying 2024, we're kind of -- you'll see them in the air in '25 and in '26 hopefully we are flying passengers on a revenue basis. I think that's the idea. And that's when you show the local legislators there -- instance in beta, they're quiet on takeoff on landing and they're absolutely silence and overflight and the vast majority of noise complaints or concerns are in overflight because obviously, it's the longest distance you're covering so many people. And the fact that it's green and emission-free, despite the fact that helicopters don't burn a lot, it's critical importance. Everybody is focused on even more in Europe than in the U.S.

Absolutely. That was terrific. I think we are -- we're past our time. Also we'll end it there, but really great conversation. Learned a lot as always. So thank you so much for being here and participating. Thank you, everybody, for joining and for your questions.

Thanks, Itay.