NEW YORK --Rick Dery, former senior vice president of branded sales and chief marketing officer for Gulf Oil, is now vice president of sales for membership-based private aviation company Wheels Up.
Dery, who led gasoline brand Gulf’s national sales expansion, has been charged with developing the Southwest Florida market and nationwide petroleum industry sector for Wheels Up. He is based in based in Naples, Fla.
“We are thrilled to welcome a successful executive like Rick Dery as interest continues to grow from this business community,” said Wheels Up co-founder Bill Allard. “We have gained a lot of momentum with corporate memberships and see vast potential in the petroleum industry market.”
Wheels Up reduces the upfront costs to fly privately, while providing flexibility, service and safety, according to the company. Created and led by entrepreneur Kenny Dichter, Wheels Up offers guaranteed availability to its private fleet of new Beechcraft King Air 350i and Citation Excel/XLS aircraft to individual, family and corporate members.
Through a mobile app, members can book flights, manage accounts, participate in ride-share opportunities and choose "hot flights," a selection of one-way “empty leg” flights that are posted daily to the app and updated in real time. Members also have access to Wheels Down, a program featuring exclusive events and experiences, partner benefits and a full-service luxury concierge.
Wheels Up acts as agent for the Wheels Up members and is not the operator of the program aircraft; FAA-licensed and DOT-registered air carriers participating in the program exercise full operational control of the program aircraft. Any aircraft owned or leased by Wheels Up are dry leased to the operating air carrier to facilitate operations by that carrier.
“Wheels Up is the perfect business partner to a growing petroleum distributorship,” said Dery. “The private fleet is ideal for regional travel, with the added benefit of having access to smaller municipal airports typically unavailable to commercial aircraft.”
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