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The excellent potential of the system is used by 115 freight brokers – the system turned out to be the best solution for them, and now they can serve their clients much faster and more efficiently.
Background
In the fall of 2000, a group of students who had just started an entrepreneurial program at the Chalmers School of Technology came up with the idea of creating a computer system that could bring transparency to the business jet market. During the student school year, the business idea was appreciated by participants in the European business jet charter market. Market support for the idea was strong enough to launch the project.
In the fall of 2001, at an early stage of the development of the first version of the system, the Danish company Air Support, a supplier of PPS flight planning systems, joined the project. Air Support sponsored huge marketing research for the project and allowed it to use its own pricing module – the same one used in PPS. This has facilitated the ability to predict the exact price of aircraft charter that is included in the system.
It was at this stage that the name Avinode (short for aviation and node) appeared. In January 2002, Avinode AB was registered and began looking for investors. Soon an investor was found in the person of a leading Scandinavian media corporation. throughout 2002, the development of the system continued, and in August the first version was ready.
When the system was first released by Avinode, it had a list of 100 aircraft from 15 freight brokers (mostly from the Scandinavian countries) who were evaluating the system. The system began to work as intended.
With encouraging results from the test period, Avinode began selling the system in the European market. They were met with great success. More and more companies were connected to the system. Rumors spread throughout the market that the system had a positive effect, which helped Avinode maintain a solid growth rate.
Avinode has grown to be the leading aviation charter network for professionals around the world. Today 750 aircraft from 195 aircraft operators can be verified for availability and price on all continents. The excellent potential of the system is used by 115 freight brokers – the system turned out to be the best solution for them, and now they can serve their clients much faster and more efficiently.
System functionality
The Avinode system works over the Internet. Avinode can be accessed from any computer with a username and password. The system has two main modes: for aircraft operators and for freight brokers. They work as follows:
Regime for aircraft operators.
In the role of the aircraft operator, the operator has access to a convenient and simple timetable in which he enters information about the availability of aircraft. In addition, he has the ability to report the availability of aircraft not only in his own, but also in foreign airports. The operator also has the ability to enter information about empty flights into the system. He can also enter flight characteristics and price data into Avinode for the system to make its own price calculation.
Freight broker. Freight brokers have access to a search function where they enter the following details of the flight they need:
- type of travel: one way, with a return or with transfers
- Airport of departure and arrival
- Time and date
- Number of passengers
- Aircraft type.
From the search results, the user can proceed to submit a charter request to one or more of the listed companies. Via Avinode, the request can be sent to the operator via e-mail, fax or SMS, directly to your cell phone.
Avinode Business Benefits
The system now has 195 registered aircraft operators around the world, constantly updating availability and pricing information for 750 aircraft for 115 charter brokers. Both client groups using Avinode experience tremendous business benefits. Some of them:
For aircraft operators:
- Looking for new clients
- Increase in sales
- Controlling the availability of the charter – even when it is not at the home airport
- Improved service for brokers' clients – they know the price and availability from the start
- Ease of selling empty flights
- Access to accurate statistics
- For charter brokers:
- More efficient and faster customer service – the end customer receives price and availability information directly by phone
- The ability to find unexpected solutions
- Ability to find new operators to do business together
- Market transparency
- Ease of finding empty flights
Save time: sending a request through the system is much faster than calling everyone on the phone asking about price and availability.
Technology
Avinode is a multi-class system written in the Java language (J2EE), consisting of a database, applications and display forms. The system allows you to work with it using both licensed software and open source software.
The modern architecture of the system allows it to easily communicate with other software over the Internet using the XML standard. Using XML format, Avinode can automatically import aircraft availability data from several programs that are most commonly used by aircraft operators.
With Avinode, brokers can interact with operators in real time. Information from operators is updated in the Avinode system every 5 minutes.
Source: BizavNews
