Wheels Up to facilitate hiring of laid-off workers at Avex Aviation 

BROOMFIELD — Private-jet charter company Wheels Up Experience Inc. (NYSE: UP), which this week told Colorado regulators that it would close up shop at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport and lay off 65 workers, said Thursday that it plans to partner with Avex Aviation Inc., an existing operator at RMMA that hopes to hire ex-Wheels Up workers. 

Avex provides maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services at the Broomfield airport.

The cooperative effort will “provide a direct path for placement opportunities for affected staff,” many of whom were airplane maintenance workers, Wheels Up said in a news release. 

The process of closing the Wheels Up operation in Broomfield, along with a similar one in Cincinnati, “will begin immediately,” the company said. 

“The decision to close these facilities is not one that we made lightly. Our entire maintenance team is responsible for driving meaningful improvement across key customer experience indicators, particularly total completion rate and on-time performance metrics,” Wheels Up chief operating officer Dave Holtz said in the release. “Our people are absolutely crucial to our success, and we are highly appreciative of the MRO providers we have partnered with to ensure that we take care of the staff affected by these closures in every way we possibly can.” 

Wheels Up, which allows passengers to book short- to medium-distance flights at an hourly rate, is consolidating maintenance services into a new facility it is opening at the Palm Beach International Airport in Florida. 

“In preparation for the opening at PBI, resources will be reallocated from existing, underutilized

facilities where there is reduced organic network flow and flight traffic,” such as at RMMA, the company said. 

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