Fractional jet operator Volato, a leading provider of on-demand, jet card, and aircraft deposit programs, has announced plans to become a publicly traded company through a SPAC merger with Proof Acquisition Corp I (NYSE:PACI).
Once the SPAC merger is completed, Volato is expected to have an enterprise value of $261 million and will trade under the symbol of NYSE: SOAR. Matt Liotta, CEO and co-founder of Volato will continue to lead the company as a public entity. Volato’s executive management team is also expected to stay in their current positions post-merger.Â
Volato primarily operates HondaJets.
Including one-time aircraft sales and annual recurring revenue (ARR), Volato finished 2022 with $96 million in gross revenues.
Volato generates revenue through three primary sources: initial aircraft sales for $7.7 million per aircraft, which generate a 16 percent margin; an annual management fee of $1 million per aircraft per year, which the company considers a break-even; and flight operations, which generate $4 million per aircraft per year at a 31 percent margin.Â
The best way to think about the unit economics of the business is that the annual management fee and flight operations revenue generate approximately $5 million in ARR for each HondaJet under management, with a 25 percent margin.Â
Volato finished 2022 with 12 aircraft under management, but it currently has 18 HondaJets under management, with another 23 HondaJets under firm order. With a total fleet expected to be at 41, the current proforma ARR run-rate would expand from $90 million to $205 million by December 2025.
In addition to the SPAC merger, Volato also announced that it raised $48.4 million in a Series A venture capital round that will be converted into common equity once the merger is completed. The company had raised $38 million in convertible notes that will also be converted to common equity at the same time.
The company expects the SPAC merger to be completed in 2023.
