To be successful they realised they needed a business jet charter marketplace to drive demand. So they decided to launch that as well. One of their professors suggested they focus on the marketplace and park the air taxi idea. The Avinode charter marketplace launched in 2002.

CAMP Systems this week agreed to buy Avinode and two smaller FBO software businesses – FBO One and Total FBO –  for $200m. The professor was right.

It is a good deal for World Kinect (the energy company formally known as World Fuel) which acquired Avinode in 2014. World Kinect will use the cash to pay down debt and focus on its core fuelling business. It has clearly made a good return on its investment. World Kinect took control in 2019 just before its main business was hit with grounded airlines.

“We are excited about the possibilities the partnership between our companies will bring to our customers,” said Oliver King, chief executive officer, Avinode Group.

The acquisition also makes a lot of sense for CAMP Systems, the aircraft maintenance tracking business. CAMP Systems is itself owned by Hearst, a 136-year-old private company. Hearst is best known for publishing regional newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle (which it launched in 1887) and magazines like Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and Harper’s Bazaar. But along with newspapers, TV and magazines it has three significant business-to-business data divisions: Fitch Ratings, healthcare and transportation.

The transportation division includes data that helps mechanics fix trucks and cars. This includes MOTOR, a magazine that Hearst has owned for more than 120 years. MOTOR has evolved from a print consumer magazine into a data business for car repair, parts and insurance. Aviation is just as significant to Hearst.

Hearst acquired CAMP Systems in 2016 from private equity firm GTCR. (GTCR is now an investor in JSSI and has supported it buying two aircraft maintenance tracking companies that are rivals to CAMP.)

CAMP Systems then bought Inventory Locator Systems, the spares marketplace, from Boeing in 2019. In 2021 it bought a majority stake in FlightBridge, a workflow system that connects business jet operators with FBO, car handlers, hotels, airlines and catering companies.

When the deal closes in May, Avinode will fit into CAMP’s Marketplaces Group along with ILS, FlightBridge and Amstat – the aircraft listing marketplace.

“This represents a complementary extension of our business and platform to bring exciting new opportunities to the market and better serve our expanding customer base,” said Sean Lanagan, president and chief executive Officer, CAMP Systems.

World Kinetic did not run a formal sales process, instead it contacted companies that had already approached it in the past. The business could have fitted well with Directional Aviation’s spin-off Tuvoli (which has FlyEasy, a rival marketplace and a payment system competitor). It might also have been of interest to Portside, the flight department software company which raised $50m in private equity from investor Insight Partners (and recently acquired the rights to Wheels Up’s AVIANIS software). The founders of Wheels Up had also tried to buy Avinode several times.

King and the senior management team have no plans to leave. This includes Per Marthinsson, one of the three founders, who is Avinode’s chief revenue office.

The other two founders are backing a European car charging start-up. It was branded before they joined, but is genuinely called ChargeNode.

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The company – formerly Jet Token – will soon list on the Nasdaq following a merger with Oxbridge Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

CharterGPT is designed to filter out the key facts that are needed to book charter. It then searches for individual aircraft available through the Avinode charter marketplace. CharterGPT then automatically contacts brokers.

“Customers can press a button and chat with it – which is fun – and then get serious charter quotes,” said Mike Winston, chairman, Jet AI Aviation. “But it is serious and we will keep improving it. We are not launching a series of robo calls to the industry.”

As an operator, Jet AI Aviation is not promising instant results. Instead, it tells customers it could take three hours to confirm. “We are not promising to be an Uber for jets or coming in to change the industry,” said Winston. “There is a lot of fine tuning to come on the back end and understanding human nature on the front, But even a decent improvement in productivity that is non-invasive and is well received is plenty good enough.”

Jet AI Aviation is set to launch a number of other products for operators. These include repricing dead-legs. “If you’ve got an empty leg, between two two points, but you wish to say originate and terminate at someplace nearby and sort of in the same direction, we can price it for you dynamically,” said Winston.

Flight Club – another new product –allow business jet charter operators (FAA Part 135 operators) to offer individual seats under Part 380 operator (which can offer escrow).  “The software sends the booking and files the DOT [Department of Transport] forms automatically and then you have to set up an escrow which we help with. Once you have done you can sell by the seat,” said Winston. Jet AI has already used this working with Cirrus Aviation and the Vegas Golden Knights ice hockey team.

It is also planning to offer technology to allow small operators to create their own jet cards. “If you are a smaller operator – and 80% of these don’t have cards – we can give you the software to offer a jet card,” said Winston. “We are talking about the contracts, the system to log in and change hours and so on. We really want to help the smaller operators compete.” It also wants to simplify – and reduce the cost – of buying carbon credits for operators.

Winston said that Jet.AI is keen to work with operators – particularly the 2,350 Part 135 charter operators in the US where 80% have fewer than 10 aircraft.

“We are not going out there saying we can revolutionise everything or book charter within a minute,” said Winston. “But we can use AI to make the industry more efficient and it is literally in our name.” Jet Token never issued a token.

“There is the utility of using AI to take in requests from existing customers. One of the things that we learned with our card management platform was that our customers really would just prefer to text,” said John Church, chief technology officer, Jet.AI. “We are building that capability and that works well with all of our other products.”

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*Paynode now connects more than 250 air charter companies 

Paynode – offering faster and more secure air charter payments – was launched as an integrated payment service in Avinode’s marketplace in 2016. In the past 18 months, the platform has evolved significantly and now connects more than 250 air charter companies globally, enabling them to make instant payments within the network. In the first quarter of 2022 Paynode passed the milestone of 150 weekly transactions, meaning the activity on the platform has increased by 200% in the last six months.

“We’re very excited to see how Paynode has grown and been adopted by our Avinode members. We have seen exceptional growth, particularly in the past 12 months, where we have more than doubled the number of companies registered on the platform. And so far, feedback has been great! They love having the ability to send and receive payments instantly at the click of a button all within a trusted network. It’s been a game-changer for our members” says Brenton Melville (pictured), Payment Solutions Manager.

Trying to follow the progress of aviation payments on multiple platforms is an everyday stress for many finance departments worldwide. The Avinode team designed Paynode to take away all that pressure, creating a “comfort zone” with increased trust between members of the network. The only payment platform designed exclusively for the air charter industry is fast and secure, using one simple workflow to request, track and secure payments worldwide.

Paynode offers its members a selection of payment methods for a charter payment, including the ability to make instant payments between members of the network. When opting for instant payment as payment method, the funds will be sent and received in a split second – no matter the day, time or currency. The platform is also offering international wires and credit card payments, built to reduce the risk of fraud and simplifying the payment workflow.

As a broker that also manages a fleet of aircraft, Fast Private Jet has been an Avinode customer since 2018. With offices in the US and Italy, they joined the Paynode network a year ago and Mauro de Rosa, CEO and founder, has since then experienced first-hand how the Avinode-Paynode integration increases trust in the industry.

“I believe Paynode will be the future of air charter payments. It’s simple, stress-free, and intuitive to use. Paynode is building something that money can’t buy… trust. What it has done is providing the trust in the exact same way that Avinode has. It lets us work worldwide with operators and brokers in an efficient, safe way” says Mauro de Rosa.

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The main focus of Quote is to optimise the time taken to quote for charter flights and see a higher conversion rate to actual flights. To make things more convenient, MySky Quote is designed to integrated with Flexx, Avinode and Leon, said Marich.

The app had a soft launch earlier this summer, for MySky’s existing clients and it is now open to its European customers. Marich expects an expansion to the US later this year.

CEO and co-founder Kirill Kim said the past year had seen a huge increase in demand for charter. “With some operators receiving over 100 requests per aircraft per day, manually responding to all of them became impossible.

MySky’s Quote will help them gain a higher return on investment (ROI) for each flight, said Kim.

The membership fee is about €100 ($120) per month, with a few cents charged per quote. Marich told CJI it has not been difficult to drum up interest for Quote.

Erica DaVeiga, sales manager, Europe, MySky said: “Automation allows charter teams to concentrate on what they do best: negotiate, amend, and take commercial decisions to get more deals over the line instead of accepting or declining an unreasonable number of trips.”

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The launch is part of its partnership with Chris Hagan, founder and chairman of international cinema software company, Unique X. Hagan and Quorem founder Phil Brockwell aim to develop a suite of commercial solutions aimed at improving profitability, sustainability, and scalability for private jet operators.

Brockwell told Corporate Jet Investor (CJI) he has had the idea for six years. “Every year I thought somebody would come up with it, but nobody did. So I did it myself,” he said.

The company is currently in pre-launch testing. It is using data from UK-based operator Catreus fed into an artificial intelligence-driven workflow tool, in order to optimize commercial strategies from the point of sale.

Four more operators are also interested in the platform, said Brockwell. “We’re already getting signups for the demo two-month trials.”

The strategies will aim to increase profit and reduce inefficient ferry flight which are a source of unnecessary carbon emissions, according to the company.

Quorem has been working since January 2020 to develop a unique poly-algorithmic scoring feature that defines and analyses valuable opportunities from thousands of flight requests and uses engaging data visualization and gamification.

Brockwell told CJI it will target European operators for now, before its next step to set up in America early next year.

The platform is currently built for fleets sized between four and 30 aircraft, he said. “We would have to tweak the front end to work with bigger operators in the US,” said Brockwell.

It is already able to integrate with Leon, Avinode and Schedaero.

“Quorem makes it easy and fun to be better and has justifiable environmental benefits,” according to Brockwell.

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Positioned as an end-to-end travel solutions app, Volavia enables customers to keep track of their bookings, communications, and itinerary in the same place. It also aims to make payment through cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum available to users.

The idea for the platform arose two years ago, after Volanteus director Mark Green discovered operators and brokers were not very receptive to blockchain or cryptocurrency. “They thought it was to do with illegal activity – terrorism or something.”

Since then the industry has incorporated more tech-based platforms, such as Avinode and Tuvoli, on a daily basis. By using Volavia, customers can look to reduce the risks of fraudulent activities as well as ensure contractual obligations.

Green said smart contracts guarantee payments are made to parties involved in a transaction provided their agreement is set up via blockchain.

He said: “The terms of payment – and any other contractual obligation – can be set within each smart contract. Whether that be 30 days, payment on delivery, or even pre-payment. Each obligation can be set as a timeline, and once the timeline for each item has expired, then the obligations automatically take place.”

Bernhard Fragner, CEO, GlobeAir, said: “Volavia will help the private aviation industry grow through facilitating booking procedures and offering a fast process of payments and client data. As GlobeAir is the first private jet operator in Europe to offer a smart, fast and easy online booking process for crypto currencies, we are looking forward to this revolutionary application.”

The founders are in their second round of funding, before an estimated rollout with the app in the first quarter of next year. Neil Cochrane, chairman, 51North Group and one of the co-founders of the app, said a fully functioning version could be expected at the end of next year. He added there might a market for the app in the yachting industry.

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It wasn’t a revolution in the traditional or political sense of the word – more of a societal and technological revolution. But there was fervour and electrifying energy all the same. More than 200 delegates — spanning tech startups, veteran aviation companies and investors — put their heads together to discuss the future of urban air mobility.

Paul Touw, co-founder of Stellar Labs Inc, XOJET and the first to take the stage, summed up the state of the industry quite succinctly, when he said we are embarking on the fourth technological revolution. He drew attention specifically to the rise of electric propulsion, which will fuel the future.

Many others over the course of two days of discussions echoed this shift. Moreover, they reiterated the need for electrification of flight. The argument for the rise of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) travel is multipronged, including the benefits of speed, efficiency and environmental-friendliness. But the costs of such intra-city travel will run up quite a bill — something to the tune of “$28.7 billion to research, develop and implement,” according to Touw.

And cost is only the tip of the iceberg that stands in the way of the revolution. We may well be able to fly around it, but if the 150-plus companies worldwide which are developing concepts for eVTOLs have their way, this kind of travel will be autonomous. And will require the appropriate infrastructure too, for the aircraft to land and take-off. A number of companies suggest the utilisation of existing helipads, open spaces and even water bodies. However, these come with their own set of regulatory challenges.

There is one step before infrastructure and regulation are considered. Global Blockchain Business Council’s Sandra Ro outlined the significance of blockchain, which are blocks of data that can be linked using cryptography. If there’s one thing to remember about data, it’s that it is the bedrock of any future endeavours for the aviation industry.

Ro argued for more openness, in the form of public blockchains. Gogo’s Lisa Peterson said, “Of the 40,000 flights that take-off and land in the USA daily, we receive nearly 15 petabytes of data.” A petabyte is equivalent to 13.3 years of HD+ TV video. And Per Marthinsson, of Avinode, called “to have more of a collaborative environment. And that means, I win, you win.”

The ‘Pitch’ segment of the conference saw six startups present their ideas to the room, for seven minutes each, in the hopes of winning the competition and attention of the investors present. There were eVTOL concepts, autonomous software and even a grand prix for flying Formula One cars.

Professor Mark McCaughrean, senior advisor for science & exploration at the European Space Agency, compelled the room to think about the future of intergalactic travel. He conveyed the distances involved in visiting the Moon, Mars — six to nine months — and the centre of our galaxy. His message was quite loud and clear: “If Earth is Planet A, there is no Planet B.”

One of the biggest takeaways was the irreversible impact that the rate of carbon emission from aviation has on the planet. Michael Liebreich, chief executive officer, Liebreich Associates, discussed the importance of electric vehicles and said we do not have the charging infrastructure to meet the current demand.

“Shenzhen has around 16,000 electric buses right now. They’re not doing it for fun, they’re not doing it for ‘greenwashing,’ and they’re not doing it to attract you like tourists. It’s cheaper! And they have an air quality problem.”

Essentially, it looks as if we are going to be waiting some years before we fly around in autonomous eVTOL taxis. Tech companies want to keep innovating. Investors want to put their money where their mouths are. But most of all — as it has in the past — the general opinion is that collaboration and co-creation will yield the best results for the industry at large.

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The breakthrough new web apps make searching for flights and empty legs even easier than before, benefiting not just operators and brokers but – critically – their customers too.

Per Marthinsson, Founder and EVP, Avinode Americas, says:“We’ve improved our ‘Full Search’ and our ‘Empty LegSearch’ web apps. The upgrades mean buying and selling air charter online is now simpler and quicker than ever before. If you’re an operator or broker, and you want more leads, these products are perfect for you.”

Operators and brokers can add the ‘Full Search’ application to their websites, with or without the ‘Empty Leg Search’ option, offering their customers an air charter search portal powered by Avinode.

Marthinsson continues:“Both apps can easily be customised by brokers and operators, whose clients will use our technology and comprehensive data to search for flights and empty legs but only see the branding of the broker or operator in question. Setting everything up is incredibly quick and easy. You basically just decide where you want the application to appear on your website.

“We’re helping our clients take even more control of their operations and generate even more leads. Operators and brokers can allow their existing customers, and critically their potential new customers, to search for and request charter flights and empty legs from anywhere in the world at any time. In the increasingly personalised travel industry, ensuring customers find the best fit for their private air charter needs has never been more important or, with these web apps, easier. Such a user friendly process means operators and brokers will soon start attracting leads they would otherwise neverhave found.”

Monitoring the activity on the web apps – a capability only available in the new,upgraded versions – will help users review and revise their marketing strategies accordingly, maximising the conversion of website visitors to customers.

Companies can also set upthe ‘Empty Leg Search’ to allow their clients to look only for empty legs within their own fleet or to search for empty legs across the entire Avinode system.

“These new web apps yet again demonstrate how Avinode is equipping businesses in the industry to succeed,” concludes Marthinsson. “We have the needs of the business aviation community in mind and want to lead the way to a more digitised and therefore better-connected industry.”

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While only one in ten of Avinode’s members (who make up 80% of the broker and operator marketplace) use its B2B2C products, searches made through this range accounted for almost 50% of total traffic on Avinode in June and July 2018. According to the company, this is demonstrable evidence of how these products support, and help to grow, members’ businesses.

The B2B2C products from Avinode consist of specially designed external APIs, as well as off-the-shelf web and mobile products. The API services provide the data to power a customized app and website created from scratch, tailored to match the requirements of that member’s business. Alternatively, members can choose from a selection of off-the-shelf web and mobile apps, which feature full Avinode search capabilities; empty leg searches; members’ own branding and the option for members to create their own charter marketplace.

Noel Trout, chief technology officer, Avinode Group, says: “The business aviation market is being driven by technology. With a digital backbone, our members can give their customers what they want. Avinode’s B2B2C products are ideal for members who want to take control of their business – we offer the most comprehensive flight search capabilities in the business air charter industry, giving both customers and sales teams access to real-time data on aircraft availability, empty legs and requests.

“To help further convert online visitors to leads, all our bespoke sites and apps are professional and modern while being intuitive to use, particularly on mobile – a key consideration for today’s digitally savvy customer. By providing cutting-edge technology solutions for the business air charter industry, both built from scratch and off-the-shelf, we can help brokers and operators of any size evolve their business and take that crucial step towards total digital integration.”

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Oliver King, CEO of the Avinode Group, says: “As an industry, we have just experienced our best growth in a decade in Europe and another strong growth year in the US. Taken together, we are on a high of activity in the sector.”

Analyzing flight requests submitted through Avinode’s online marketplace for buying and selling private air charter, for the year April 1 2017-March 31 2018, all the leading European destinations are showing increased demand for intra-European traffic.

France remains the most popular destination for intra-European business aviation flights, representing 20% of this market. Demand to fly to France rose from 379,771 requests in the year April 1 2016-March 31 2017 to 480,891 requests for the year April 1 2017-March 31 2018 (up 27%). The UK (325,433 requests, up 36%), Spain (321,898 requests, up 44%), Italy (316,032 requests, up 37%) and Switzerland (162,244 requests, up 33%) complete the list of the top five intra-European destinations.

King says: “France remains the biggest player in European private aviation, although the UK is closing the gap and enjoys much higher traffic levels to and from the US. The substantial growth in demand for travel to Spain, after so many difficult years for the country economically, is great to see.

“The strength of the British and French markets is also shown in the fact London Luton Airport-Nice Côte d’Azur Airport is the most popular intra-European route,” continues King. “And Spain should take confidence from the fact Ibiza Airport was the destination for four of the 20 most requested intra-European routes in the year to March 31 2018, with all four of those routes growing in popularity over those 12 months.”

The Cessna Citation Mustang is the most requested business aircraft for intra-European flights. In fact, Cessna Citations fill all five top spots on this list, with the Mustang being followed by the CJ2, XLS, CJ2+ and the XLS+.

King adds: “The number of small jets listed on Avinode by European operators continues to grow. When looking at the entry-level jet, light jet and super light jet categories combined, for example, the numbers rose by 4% between April 2017 and April 2018.”

Flights from Russia dominate traffic into Europe from outside Europe, representing 66% of requests in this market. Away from Russia and the CIS, departures from the US (6% of the market) and Saudi Arabia (4%) lead the way for requests for business aviation flights arriving into Europe from outside Europe.

Four of the six most requested business aircraft types, when flying into Europe from outside Europe, are Bombardier Challengers. The Challenger 604 leads this market, with a 6% share, followed by the Embraer Legacy 600.

King says: “Every day, across 89 countries, users log in to Avinode, SchedAero and PayNode to support their customers. Over the last 12 years, 20m searches have been made on Avinode as buyers look for the best charter option. Much has changed over that time. The question of whether customers will book online has been answered. They will and they do. The challenge for us as an industry is to provide the seamless and transparent service that defines the rest of the travel business. We can’t wait to play our part in this challenge.”

King cautions, however, that uncertainty is growing on what the future holds. “We have seen a sustained period of wealth creation across the globe, combined with significant investment in digital charter models in both the US and Europe. Potential trade disputes, political uncertainty in the US and UK, as well as rising oil prices, threaten growth, particularly in the luxury leisure market of Europe.”

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