Wheels Up in recent weeks has reorganized its operations team, adding and promoting several former Delta Air Lines executives, the private aviation supplier announced Monday.
Chairman of operations Dave Holtz, who spent more than 40 years at Delta, one of Wheels Up’s financial backers, has been promoted to chief operating officer. He joined Wheels Up in March 2022.
Patrick Burns joined the carrier on Feb. 1 as SVP of flight operations, according to Wheels Up. Burns had spent 25 years with Delta, where he most recently was VP of flight operations and system chief pilot.
Pat Busscher joined the carrier in September as SVP of maintenance after a 39-year career at Delta, including 10 years running maintenance control at the airline, according to Wheels Up.
The private carrier also promoted fleet general manager Rob Hamilton to SVP of operations, where he will lead the company’s member operations center which oversees flight control, mission planning, member services and enterprise operations management.
The reorganization comes about five months after George Mattson became CEO and six months after the company received a bailout, which included funding from Delta and investment firms Certares and Knighthead.
Delta in 2020 merged its Delta Private Jets business into Wheels Up.
