The following is a letter to Surf Air Mobility Inc. shareholders from Shawn Pelsinger, Chairman of the Board:
I am honored and excited to take on the role of Chairman of the Board of Surf Air Mobility.
In my decade at Palantir, where I served as the Global Head of Corporate Development, I witnessed firsthand what the right software can do to accelerate an industry in transition. Air mobility is at that moment right now, and I believe Surf Air Mobility is perfectly positioned to capture the opportunity.
In late 2024 we laid out our Transformation Plan. We set out to improve our capital structure, optimize our operations, and incubate our SurfOS business. As I write to you today, we have significantly reduced our debt, improved profitability in our air mobility business, and we have secured our first multi-million-dollar contract to deploy SurfOS alongside Palantir.
The Transformation Plan was designed to get our house in order, because we knew that without a stable foundation we could not deliver consistent and timely execution against our biggest opportunities. I believe that we have executed our plan successfully, and we now have the foundation that allows us to move into a new chapter for the company. We had to raise and invest capital over the last several years to build a technology-enabled platform that can grow both revenue and profitability simultaneously. We now intend to prove it to you.
Our singular mission has never changed: to transform air mobility. What has evolved over the years is how best to approach that massive market opportunity. To lay it out plainly, this is how we see our business today:
- SurfOS: An AI-enabled operating system built with Palantir, serving enterprise and small and medium sized clients across the industry, that generates high-margin software revenue and deploys next-generation technology the industry needs for its next growth phase.
- Tech-enabled charter platform: A platform that aligns operators, owners, brokers, and passengers, so that every stakeholder who deploys the software grows the value of the entire ecosystem.
- Air mobility operations: A profitable air mobility operation to be the commercial launchpad for next-generation electric aircraft.
Let me give you a little more detail on what the next chapter of Surf Air Mobility looks like and how our three interconnected parts of the business translate into long-term economic value.
Our next chapter makes SurfOS air mobility’s digital infrastructure.
We built an AI-enabled operating system with Palantir and proved it inside our two airline brands and a fast-growing charter business. We are now commercializing this software. Few companies sit where we sit, at the intersection of aviation operations, AI-enabled software, and electrification, and we intend to use our position to our advantage.
During the initial deployment of any emerging software platform, early enterprise contracts are often short-term and modest in value, but we intentionally set a high bar for ourselves. Winning Wheels Up as our first enterprise software customer, worth up to $12 million over the contract term, is not a “typical” first deal. It is a multi-year, multi-million-dollar contract that shows you our ambition paid off. It also tells you that the product is working and the market is ready. And this customer is deploying just one product within our growing platform.
OperatorOS, OwnerOS, and OEM OS are yet to launch commercially. Our enterprise pipeline is growing and we have the weight of Palantir behind our go-to-market. We have barely scratched the surface.
Our next chapter proves our platform strategy through our charter business.
Our private charter business will be our largest growth engine and is the anchor of our platform strategy. Through our charter business, we currently interface with the brokers, operators, owners, manufacturers, and passengers that comprise the value chain. Today, the private charter value chain is fragmented and misaligned. Aircraft owners, brokers, and operators use dozens of disconnected, inefficient systems. By organizing them through SurfOS, our platform can create efficiencies and margin expansion that only occur when incentives are aligned.
As more stakeholders increasingly come on platform, the results will show up in more revenue and in expanding margins, not just for us, but for others as well. In other words, we expect our Surf On Demand private charter business to keep growing, and we expect the platform to grow even faster.
Like platform businesses that have transformed other industries, our goal is to help organize the supply and demand through our technology to create a distributed air mobility network that gets more reliable, efficient, and profitable over time.
Our next chapter turns our airline into the launchpad for electric flight.
At present, we are not interested in chasing topline airline revenue for its own sake. Instead, we see our operational footprint, especially in Hawaii, as a technology proving ground and as the place to bring new electric aircraft into commercial use. Our ambition is to be the first airline to fly a paying passenger on an electric aircraft. When BETA's aircraft are certified to fly commercially, Hawaii is where they will fly first, on routes we already operate, with AI-enabled software already running the operations.
You'll see the airline become a smaller share of the business, while becoming more cash generative, and when paired with technology from partners like BETA and our own SurfOS software, our airline operations will inflect even further to profitability.
Where our focus is for the rest of this year and into 2027.
To sum it up, here is the shortlist of what we are working toward through the back half of this year and throughout 2027:
- Rolling out SurfOS products for enterprise and small to medium size customers
- Establishing a path to profitability in each of our businesses
- Significantly growing charter platform revenue
- Flying the first paying passenger on an electric aircraft once certified
My primary duties as Chairman are simple: allocate capital wisely and ensure our team executes with relentless discipline.
I'm excited to take this journey with you.
Shawn Pelsinger
Chairman of the Board
Surf Air Mobility
About Surf Air Mobility
Surf Air Mobility is a Los Angeles-based air mobility platform. With its AI-enabled SurfOS software, Surf Air Mobility provides technology designed to support the modernization of air operations and the adoption of next-generation aircraft. The Company currently operates one of the largest commuter airlines in the United States by scheduled departures and provides private charter services. Together, these businesses provide the operational scale and real-world operating data to validate and deploy its software. These capabilities position Surf Air Mobility as a leader shaping a more efficient, connected, and accessible future for aviation.
Forward-Looking Statements
This letter contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 — including statements about our Transformation Plan and path to profitability in each business, the commercialization and expected benefits of SurfOS, growth of our charter platform (including our target of charter platform revenue above $100 million), and the timing and commercial deployment of electric aircraft with BETA. These reflect management's current views and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including: our limited operating history and the fact that we have not yet commercialized OperatorOS, OwnerOS, or OEM OS for third-party sales; development delays, technical challenges, or lack of market acceptance affecting the return on our SurfOS investment; our dependence on Palantir, BETA, and other partners and suppliers; the timing of regulatory certification of electric aircraft and any accidents or incidents involving them; our customers' ability to pay for our services; our ability to fund operations, satisfy our obligations, and access financing on acceptable terms; our continued compliance with New York Stock Exchange listing standards; and general economic conditions. These and other risks are described in the periodic reports we file with the SEC (available at www.sec.gov), which you should review before making an investment decision. We assume no obligation to update these statements except as required by law.
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