Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

v3.22.2.2
Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2022
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Description of Business
Blade Air Mobility, Inc. (“Blade” or the “Company”), headquartered in New York, New York, is a technology-powered, global air mobility platform that provides consumers with a cost effective and time efficient alternative to ground transportation for congested routes. Blade arranges charter and by-the-seat flights using helicopters, jets, turboprops, and amphibious seaplanes operating in various locations throughout the United States and abroad. Blade’s platform utilizes a technology-powered, asset-light business model. Blade provides transportation to its customers through a network of contracted aircraft operators. Blade does not own or operate aircraft.
On May 7, 2021 (the “Closing Date”), privately held Blade Urban Air Mobility, Inc., a Delaware corporation formed on December 22, 2014 (“Old Blade”), consummated transactions contemplated by the Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”), dated December 14, 2020, by and among Experience Investment Corp. (“EIC”), Experience Merger Sub, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of EIC (“Merger Sub”), and Old Blade. The Merger Agreement provided for the acquisition of Old Blade by EIC pursuant to the merger of Merger Sub with and into Old Blade (the “Merger”), with Old Blade continuing as the surviving entity and a wholly-owned subsidiary of EIC. On the Closing Date, and in connection with the closing of the Merger Agreement (the “Closing”), EIC changed its name to Blade Air Mobility, Inc. See Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2021 for additional information.
Basis of Presentation and Principles of Consolidation
The accompanying unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“U.S. GAAP”) for interim financial information and Article 10 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by U.S. GAAP for complete financial statements. Management’s opinion is that all adjustments (consisting of normal accruals) considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included. Operating results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2022. These financial statements should be read in conjunction with the Company’s consolidated financial statements and accompanying Notes included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2021.

On February 1, 2022, the Board of Directors approved a change of the Company’s fiscal year-end from September 30 to December 31. The Company’s 2022 fiscal year began on January 1, 2022 and will end on December 31, 2022.
Currency Conversion
The presentation currency of the Company is U.S. dollars (US$) and the unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared on this basis. The period ended September 30, 2022 unaudited interim condensed consolidated statement of operations is prepared using average exchange rates of Euro (€) €1.02 to the US$ and Canadian dollars (C$) C$1.29 to the US$. The unaudited interim condensed consolidated balance sheet as at September 30, 2022 has been prepared using the exchange rates on that day of €1.02 to the US$ and C$1.37 to the US$ (December 31, 2021: C$1.27).
Short-Term Investments
Held-to-Maturity Securities
The Company's investments in held-to-maturity securities consist of investment grade U.S. Treasury obligations with maturity dates of less than 365 days. The Company has the ability and intention to hold these securities until maturity. Accordingly, these securities are recorded in the Company's balance sheet at amortized cost and interest is recorded within interest income on the Company's unaudited interim condensed consolidated statement of operations. The held-to-maturity securities balance at September 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021 was $120,222 and nil, respectively. The market value of the held-to-maturity securities at September 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021 was $120,119 and nil, respectively.
Other Short-Term Investments
Other short-term investments consist of highly-liquid investments available for sale. As of September 30, 2022, other short-term investments consisted of an available-for-sale, traded, debt securities fund, which is recorded at fair value with unrealized gains and losses reported, net of tax, in “Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)”, unless unrealized losses are determined to be unrecoverable. Realized gains and losses on the sale of securities are determined by specific identification. The Company considers all available-for-sale securities as available to support current operational liquidity needs and, therefore, classifies all securities as current assets within short-term investments on the Company’s unaudited interim condensed consolidated balance sheets. These other short-term investments are excluded from disclosure under “fair value of financial instruments” due to the Net Asset Value practical expedient. The other short-term investments balance at September 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021 was $30,156 and $279,374, respectively. The cost of other short-term investments at September 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021 was $30,399 and $280,263, respectively.

Emerging Growth Company
The Company is an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act, as modified by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the “JOBS Act”), and it may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies. These exemptions include, but are not limited to, not being required to comply with the independent registered public accounting firm attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in its periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.
Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such election to opt out is irrevocable. The Company has elected to use such extended transition period which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, the Company, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of the Company’s consolidated financial statements with another public company that is not an emerging growth company or is an emerging growth company that has opted out of using the extended transition period, difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.

Use of Estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and accompanying notes. The Company bases its estimates on historical experience, current business factors, and various other assumptions that the Company believes are necessary to consider to form a basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities, the recorded amounts of revenue and expenses, and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. The Company is subject to uncertainties such as the impact of future events, economic and political factors, and changes in the Company’s business environment; therefore, actual results could differ from these estimates. Accordingly, the accounting estimates used in the preparation of the Company’s financial statements will change as new events occur, as more experience is acquired, as additional information is obtained and as the Company’s operating environment evolves.
Changes in estimates are made when circumstances warrant. Such changes in estimates and refinements in estimation methodologies are reflected in reported results of operations; if material, the effects of changes in estimates are disclosed in the notes to the financial statements. Significant estimates and assumptions by management include, but are not limited to, the allowance for doubtful accounts, the carrying value of long-lived assets, the carrying value of intangible assets and goodwill, revenue recognition, contingencies, the determination of whether a contract contains a lease, the allocation of consideration between lease and nonlease components, the determination of incremental borrowing rates for leases, the provision for income taxes and related deferred tax accounts, and the fair value of stock-based awards.
Reclassification
Certain amounts in prior periods have been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation.
Recently Issued Accounting Standards - Adopted
In December 2019, FASB issued ASU 2019-12, Simplification of Income Taxes (Topic 740) Income Taxes (“ASU 2019-12”). ASU 2019-12 simplifies the accounting for income taxes by removing certain exceptions to the general principles in Topic 740. The amendments also improve consistent application of and simplify U.S. GAAP for other areas of Topic 740 by clarifying and amending existing guidance. ASU 2019-12 is effective for public companies for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2020, including interim periods within those fiscal years. The adoption of the ASU did not have a significant impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.
Recently Issued Accounting Standards - Not Adopted
In August 2020, the FASB issued ASU No. 2020-06, Debt—Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging— Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40). The objective of this update is to simplify the accounting for convertible preferred stock by removing the existing guidance in Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 470-20, Debt: Debt with Conversion and Other Options, (“ASC 470-20”), that requires entities to account for beneficial conversion features and cash conversion features in equity, separately from the host convertible debt or preferred stock. The guidance in ASC 470-20 applies to convertible instruments for which the embedded conversion features are not required to be bifurcated from the host contract and accounted for as derivatives. In addition, the amendments revise the scope exception from derivative accounting in ASC 815-40 for freestanding financial instruments and embedded features that are both indexed to the issuer’s own stock and classified in stockholders’ equity, by removing certain criteria required for equity classification. These amendments are expected to result in more freestanding financial instruments qualifying for equity classification (and, therefore, not accounted for as derivatives), as well as fewer embedded features requiring separate accounting from the host contract. This amendment also further revises the guidance in ASU 260, Earnings per Share, to require entities to calculate diluted EPS for convertible instruments by using the if-converted method. In addition, entities must presume share settlement for purposes of calculating diluted EPS when an instrument may be settled in cash or shares. The amendments in ASU 2020-06 are effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2023, with early adoption permitted. The Company does not expect the adoption of ASU 2020-06 to have a significant impact on its consolidated financial statements.