Our performance in the second quarter ended June 30, 2022 was once again well ahead of our expectations. Revenue in the quarter increased 175% to $35.6 million versus $13.0 million in the 2021 comparable period, contributing to a record quarter for both Revenue and Flight Profit and establishing total revenue of $62.3 million for the first half of this year.
We are seeing great performance across the broad portfolio of diverse aviation businesses that we have built and acquired since our inception. On a pro forma basis, assuming we had owned Trinity Air Medical and Helijet's scheduled passenger business in the prior year period, organic revenue growth would have been 87%. As evidenced by this figure, the benefits of the Blade platform are paying dividends across our divisions, both old and new. This is a testament to our ability to aggressively and efficiently integrate our acquisitions, and demonstrates
that at Blade, M&A is a core competency.
Rob Wiesenthal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
In MediMobility Organ Transport, we are making great progress in terms of new client acquisition and now serve 59 transplant centers and organ procurement organizations. We remain the largest air transporter of human organs for transplant in the United States. By leveraging the buying power of the entire Blade customer base, both consumer and medical, we provide better pricing and reliability for hospitals in a way few others can. Expect us to continue rolling out our great service and capabilities to even more clients in the months ahead.
We have also made great strides in Short Distance. Our Vancouver business returned to profitability following the impact of Omicron in the first quarter, while Blade Airport, connecting travelers between Manhattan and New York area airports, showed significant improvement in utilization, with its current passenger run-rate well ahead of pre-pandemic levels. As a result of the strong demand for Blade Airport, in June we launched an additional route between the East Side of Manhattan and JFK. Average seat prices increased across the Short Distance route portfolio, contributing to significant growth in Flight Profit.
More than anything, this quarter demonstrated the resilience of our fliers and the enduring value proposition of our services. From our Blade Airport business, starting at $195 per seat, up to our commuter business with seats up to $1,100, we have seen unwavering demand for our Short Distance products, even following price increases. Given the flexibility of our asset-light model, the unique resilience of Blade's Short Distance Fliers and the essential nature of our MediMobility Organ Transport services, we believe Blade is well equipped to thrive, even in a potential recessionary environment.
Simply put, we have built a diverse and defensive set of businesses with significant growth potential in any almost economic environment. To focus on this important point: based on the current Third Quarter performance to-date, we are seeing both consistent strong demand and price elasticity in our consumer business. At the same time, our medical business is enjoying continued growth and remains uncorrelated with the vagaries of the travel industry or the overall economy.
Our three European acquisitions are expected to close in late Summer 2022. In May we announced an agreement to acquire the asset-light commercial passenger transport activities of three urban air mobility operators in Europe. These operators generated an aggregate of approximately €30 million in revenue while servicing approximately 125,000 fliers in 2019, prior to the impact of COVID-19. The transaction is expected to close in late Summer 2022, and we've already begun to introduce our existing customer base to the South of France and Monaco by offering seats and charters to and from key events including the Monaco Grand Prix and the Cannes Lions Festival, demonstrating the significant crossover demand from our US leisure fliers. All three businesses are performing well pre-close, and we are excited that aggregate year-to-date 2022 revenue is tracking ahead of 2019 levels.
Our new urban air mobility alliance with JetBlue launched in June. Under the partnership, JetBlue will purchase four Blade Airport transfers per year for its top-tier Mosaic+ loyalty program members, while all TrueBlue members will receive first-time flier pricing benefits from Blade. We expect this partnership to improve utilization in our Blade Airport business and provide a fantastic experience for JetBlue's loyal fliers.
We will conduct a test flight using Beta Technologies' Alia electric vertical aircraft in the greater New York City area during the fourth quarter. All of our strategic and financial accomplishments serve to build an even bigger launchpad for future Electric Vertical Aircraft ("EVA", or "eVTOL" in industry parlance). Whether it's a last mile connection to bring a donor heart to a hospital helipad, or a $200 seat between Nice and Monaco, Blade is aggregating what we believe to be the best existing use cases for electric flight, and we believe we are very well positioned to benefit from quiet, emission-free and lower cost EVA. We look forward to showcasing this exciting new technology with our partner Beta Technologies later this year, with additional details about the test flight to be shared in the coming months.
In the second quarter we realigned our disaggregation of revenue in order to provide better visibility into our growing MediMobility Organ Transportation business, which is now broken out as its own revenue category. We have provided a schedule of historical quarters in both the current and prior format later in this letter.
In Short Distance, revenues were up 89% to $11.0 million in the June 2022 quarter, versus $5.8 million in the comparable 2021 period. Growth was driven by our acquisition of Helijet's passenger routes in Vancouver, increased corporate and leisure flight volumes, the resumption of our Blade Airport service, and price increases. On a pro forma basis, assuming we had owned Helijet's passenger business in the prior year period, organic revenue growth would have been 77%.
In Airport, we saw significant sequential passenger growth in the second quarter of approximately 50% versus the first quarter with a larger increase in revenue given higher yields on a per seat basis. We've continued to see passenger volume around the approximate 25,000 flier annualized run-rate that we highlighted in May. Part of the reason for this is intentional, as we made the decision to allocate excess peak hour capacity to profitable seasonal Short Distance routes. We've recently added additional capacity dedicated to Airport routes, which we expect to support future growth.
In MediMobility Organ Transport, revenue increased 1,013% to $17.2 million in the June 2022 quarter versus $1.6 million in the comparable 2021 period. Growth was driven by our acquisition of Trinity, the addition of new hospital clients, and significant growth within existing accounts. On a pro forma basis, assuming we had owned Trinity in the prior year quarter, organic revenue growth would have been approximately 139%, fantastic performance any way you look at it.
The Trinity acquisition exemplifies the success of Blade's ROIC-focused acquisition strategy, which targets profitable businesses that can leverage the Blade platform to drive incremental revenue and cost efficiencies. By deploying our brand, aircraft operator network, and technology-enabled logistics and customer service, we have significantly accelerated growth in our combined MediMobility Organ Transport business. In concrete terms, for the December 2021 quarter, the first which included Trinity for the full period, we saw $9.8 million of total MediMobility Organ Transport revenue. In just 6 months, we've grown revenue 76% to $17.2 million in the June 2022 quarter. We are well capitalized to continue executing against our M&A strategy, which we believe will both accelerate our path to profitability and enhance shareholder returns.
Flight Margin improved sequentially to 14% in Q2 up from 11% in Q1, driven by improved utilization and pricing in our Short Distance business, partially offset by the significant mix shift to MediMobility Organ Transport. MediMobility generally has lower Flight Margins than our mature Short Distance routes. Though Flight margin declined in Q2 versus the 23% reported in the comparable 2021 period, we believe the year-over-year comparison is less meaningful given the significant growth in our MediMobility Organ Transport business, which increased from 12% of total revenue in the prior year period to 48% this quarter and contributed to a 72% increase in Flight Profit versus the prior year period. This mix shift was the largest driver of the year-over-year Flight Margin decrease. The resumption of Blade Airport, which was operating below breakeven during its ramp period, had an additional negative impact. Absent the Blade Airport ramp up, we estimate that Flight Margin would have been approximately 150 to 200 basis points higher in the second quarter. Looking ahead, we expect Flight Margin to improve in the balance of the year as a result of stronger seasonal demand, improved Short Distance utilization, growth in Blade Airport and recent price increases.
Operating expense, which include Software Development, General and Administrative, and Selling and Marketing, fell to 42% of revenue this quarter, down from 83% in the prior year comparable period and down sequentially from 62% in the first quarter. This reduction as a percentage of revenue demonstrates the operating leverage of our platform, and we continue to optimize our cost structure to drive further improvement. We previously provided an expectation for the first quarter to be the high-water mark for quarterly operating expense for the year on an as-reported basis. That outlook assumed that we do no further M&A. Since then, we've announced the pending transaction in Europe, which is the largest transaction in our company's history. We have begun making necessary investments, particularly on headcount and technology, to support our expanded international revenue base following the close. As a result, we expect total Software Development, General and Administrative, and Selling and Marketing expenses in aggregate to be in the $16 - $17 million range in the coming quarters, excluding any potential one-time or non-recurring expenses.
Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $6.1 million in the second quarter compared to a loss of $2.6 million in the comparable prior year period, with the year over year decline primarily driven by increased headcount and costs to support our public company transition, partially offset by higher Flight Profit.
Operating cash flow in the quarter was negative $(11.6) million, including a $5.3 million working capital build, primarily related to our significant growth in MediMobility, where revenue grew $4.6 million, or 36% vs. Q1 2022. Our hospital clients receive up to 60-day terms, contributing to a $3.7 million increase in Accounts Receivable. In addition, we made upfront deposits of approximately $3 million on new capacity purchase agreements, which will be credited against our flying costs, and provide a cash benefit in future quarters. The increase in deposits and Accounts Receivable was partially offset by higher Accounts Payable and Unearned Revenue.
This is an excerpt of the original content. To continue reading it, access the original document here.
Blade Air Mobility Inc. published this content on 12 August 2022 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 12 August 2022 19:34:09 UTC.