Blade Air Mobility, a name that became synonymous with many South and North Fork residents’ frustration over helicopter traffic and its attendant noise, has announced the sale of its passenger division to Joby Aviation, a California company that is developing an electric, vertical takeoff and landing air taxi. Joby will pay $125 million, according to the companies.
Meanwhile, Blade, which operates a medical division, will rebrand as Strata Critical Medical, which provides medical services and logistics to hospitals and health care providers. As part of a long-term partnership going forward, Strata will gain access to Joby aircraft for medical use.
In a statement issued on Monday, Blade said that “it is expected that the quiet capabilities of Joby’s aircraft, coupled with its potential to operate at lower costs than traditional helicopters and other shorter-range aircraft, will provide value to Strata customers and a competitive advantage for the company.”
Strata will continue to own its subsidiary Trinity Medical Solutions, which transports human organs for transplant within the United States.
Electric aircraft, the first-ever passenger flight of which took off from East Hampton Airport last month, are far quieter than their fossil fuel-powered predecessors. At last month’s inaugural flight, Rob Wiesenthal, Blade Air Mobility’s founder and chief executive officer, called the Beta Technologies all-electric Alia VTOL, or vertical takeoff and landing vehicle, “quiet on takeoff and near-silent in overflight.”
The announcement may signal a leap forward in air travel: Electric VTOLs, or eVTOLs, are powered by batteries. They are suitable for urban environments because of their ability to take off and land vertically, eliminating the need for runways, and are envisioned for possible use in cargo delivery, emergency response, and military applications in addition to passenger transport.
Blade’s website includes the mission statement that “our long-term goal is to make aviation more accessible by preparing for the adoption of EVA (Electric Vertical Aircraft): quiet, carbon-neutral, and cost-effective aircraft that are currently being developed by our investors and partners.” On Monday, Mr. Wiesenthal told The Star that “the whole point, the thesis of our company . . . is to accelerate the transition from conventional helicopters to electric vertical aircraft. That is because they’re quiet and emission-free.”
Quiet aircraft “will have more places to land, and more places to land means more business,” Mr. Wiesenthal said. “Right now, as you can see, heliports are usually in places not inhabited, like on the water,” meaning heliports along Manhattan’s Hudson and East Rivers. “With this type of technology, we’ll be able to land ultimately closer to where people live and work, because these are absolutely silent in overflight, which is where the vast majority of complaints come from, in all places,” the South Fork and Manhattan included, he said. “It’s good for residents, good for the environment, and it will also, as importantly, make it lower cost.” East Hampton Airport, which he pointed out is seen by many as an asset for the few, “will be, ultimately, for the many.”
Divestiture of Blade’s passenger business includes its operations in the United States and Europe, along with its infrastructure and the Blade brand, which will continue as a standalone entity within Joby Aircraft upon the transaction’s closing. Mr. Wiesenthal will join Joby as C.E.O. of Blair Air Mobility “with the goal of expediting and accelerating the transition of Blade’s business from helicopter to electric aircraft,” he said. He will also serve as chairman of the board of Strata.
Joby-made Blade aircraft are scheduled to start passenger service in Dubai next year, Mr. Wiesenthal said. “I can’t give a timeline on the Hamptons,” he said, “but in terms of vertical takeoffs and landings, I am confident we will be the first to have paying passengers on quiet electric aircraft.”
In the announcement of Blade’s divestiture from its passenger business, Will Heyburn, the chief financial officer, said the company’s medical division represented around 59 percent of its revenue last year.
More than 48,000 organ transplants were performed in the United States last year, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. “We do many thousands,” Mr. Wiesenthal said of its transport of human organs for transplant. “One of the most important parts of the deal,” he said, “is the fact that Joby will provide their EV aircraft to the medical side,” envisioning such aircraft able to land adjacent to or on top of hospitals, critical to the time-sensitive nature of transporting vital organs to transplant recipients.
Blade, along with East End Hangars and the Coalition to Keep East Hampton Airport Open, successfully persuaded a New York State Supreme Court justice to issue a temporary restraining order in 2022, an 11th-hour victory that precluded the town from following through on a plan to convert the airport from public to private status and operate it under a prior-permission-required framework and with restrictions on aircraft operations in place. The three plaintiffs have prevailed in maintaining the status quo at the airport, thwarting the town board’s long effort to reduce the aircraft noise that many residents had complained was ruining their quality of life.
In February, the town announced that it was exploring options for a settlement agreement to resolve the ongoing litigation.
An email to Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez seeking comment was answered by Patrick Derenze, the town’s public information officer. “It is premature for the town to comment on the referenced business transaction,” he said. “However, the town will always act in the best interests of its constituents in all situations.”
