CJI TECH MAP
Tech me higher
Business aviation is digitising fast. There are now more than 150 software-based solutions on offer to the industry and CJI has mapped them all in one place.
Words: Yves Le Marquand
MAPPING BUSINESS AVIATION
Satcom Direct has integrated software like Polaris' advanced risk assessment system FlightRisk.
CJI TECH MAP
Tech me higher
Business aviation is digitising fast. There are now more than 150 software-based solutions on offer to the industry and CJI has mapped them all in one place.
Words: Yves Le Marquand
MAPPING BUSINESS AVIATION
Satcom Direct has integrated software like Polaris' advanced risk assessment system FlightRisk.
REMEMBER QUEUING IN the bank staring at the tired carpet waiting to deposit money or make a transfer? Now we have moved to online banking and UPI transactions, that chore is a fading memory.
Internet banking has been around since the mid-1990s, but digitisation has moved much faster over the past decade. The move online has been largely driven by internal forces as banking institutions look to boost revenues and be more efficient. Business aviation, like the rest of the world, is following a similar pattern of digitisation, across all sectors from catering to crew rosters, although it lags behind most.
Corporate Jet Investor (CJI) has surveyed the industry and compiled a comprehensive list of every software-based solution available to business aviation. CJI also asked technology firms what they think are the main drivers behind the digitisation of the industry. Is it internal, is it entrepreneurs seeing a gap in the market? Or is it the end user demanding a software-based experience? Also, why does business aviation, despite offering more than 150 software solutions, lag behind even its big sister commercial airlines?
Back when financial software provider MySky was founded, the initial push for digitisation came from the owners of aircraft, according to Christopher Marich, global strategy director, MySky. “You can order a car in two seconds from your phone, you can bank, you can broker, sell shares, you can do whatever. But when it came to their private aircraft, owners said this is a big grey zone with no tools to check or understand it,” he tells CJI. Seven years on and that end user has diversified. Marich estimates around 95% of MySky’s customers are operators, corporate flights departments and chief pilots – it has gone from the B2C to B2B. “These guys are the same. If they can order their lunch on Deliveroo in two clicks and it takes 25 emails to order catering for the next flight for a customer, the gap is definitely here I think.”
Alek Vernitsky, CEO, Portside told CJI he thinks demand is mostly internal to the industry. “It is owners and operators wanting digital solutions because they increase efficiency, transparency and enable operators to offer new innovative services. I don’t think this [digitisation] is a case of ‘outside in’ when entrepreneurs come up with a solution that later gets adopted.
“In our case, for example, owners came to me, describing the problem and offering to finance the solution,” he says. Portside is a cloud-based management suite, which stitches together its data from over 70 different aviation systems, for owners and operators of any aircraft.
“Operators know they need it and are actively looking for vendors who can deliver. The owners who came to me were in their 60s and owned large cabin jets. They wanted details about the operations that they couldn’t easily get from the operator (because the operator didn’t have the right software). That’s where our journey started,” said Vernitsky.
Age is just a number when it comes to adoption of tech in business aviation, according to Paul Malicki, CEO, Flapper. He told CJI the company regularly has users aged 70 and over booking through its app. “Definitely there is a strong demand on the user's end – they want everything to be mobile and on-demand. They also want to control their aircraft expenses and have access to real-time reports,” said Malicki.
Vernitsky agreed: “Owners are becoming a lot more technically savvy. There are a lot more younger owners, but interestingly many older owners have suddenly said: ‘Well, I can have an app, I want to be able to do this on my own, I don’t necessarily want to call every time I need something. This is a better way to do things.”
“Users want everything to be mobile and on-demand.”
Owners are demanding more access to data and accountability on the financial side, while also wanting more information about aircraft and schedules. “They are demanding more and savvy operators are making it available to them,” he adds. Family offices are also demanding too. Corporate flight departments are offering their aircraft out more and that intensified use is forcing the need for more digitisation, collaboration and access to data, says Vernitsky.
Arthur Ingles, CEO and founder, Moove, a price comparison and quotation tool designed for the turboprop market, says both new entrants and entrepreneurs are driving change. “I read a few metrics that, especially for the entry level segment (where we operate), 10-20% were now booked fully digitally. I think we need to segment the new young end users who are looking to a more legible, faster way of booking without calling a broker. These are the key drivers,” says Ingles.
Offering both software-as-a-service (SaaS) and a marketplace, Ingles also said that large corporate flight departments, dealing with a lot of internal requests, are also a strong driver of digitisation because it saves administration time and flights ROI are becoming critical.
“For sure the industry investments in the field are a big driver, so it’s hard to put a split number,” says Ingles. “I would use the example of the travel and commercial ticket industry of the ‘90s, traditional travel agencies are almost dead now and for people arguing that it’s luxury… you can book the Ritz’s top suite in Paris online.”
So, how far is business aviation lagging behind other industries in terms of digitisation? Whilst in almost every other field aerospace is leading the way, in the digitisation of processes it lags way behind, according to Ingles.
“I think the ‘luxury’ marketing around our industry, where things come in a glamorous or under-the-radar style, was very harmful because it meant that no automation or visibility to digital process from the general public is required,” says Ingles. “When business aviation begins to understand that real time planning, pricing and booking will allow them to cover a larger market, we will see the industry shift.”
Malicki agrees. He believes the industry is one of the last that hasn't been fully digitised. He puts this down primarily to software fragmentation and consolidation. “There are over 20 aircraft management systems at one hand, and then most of the marketplaces, such as Flapper, have been acquired by large groups like PrivateFly, Directional, JetSmarter and XO, that have prevented them from building a fully objective and independent solution,” says Malicki.
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Experts agree software fragmentation is largely why business aviation lags behind other industries.
“A shopfront can disguise manual workings in the back.”
Experts agree software fragmentation is largely why business aviation lags behind other industries.
“A shopfront can disguise manual workings in the back.”
There’s little choice but to succeed, according to Ingles. “So, we are far along the journey, things are being done and some people have succeeded on some segments of the customer journey like Avinode, all the ops software guys, Foreflight, FR24, etc., so we will succeed. We have no choice,” he says.
Just how far behind business aviation has strayed is hard to quantify and subjective to markets and end users, but Marich did some digging. A large section of customers who approach MySky are still using Microsoft Excel. “I realised Excel was launched in 1985 and most customers were using it in the best case, some used Post-it notes. There may be a couple of new features, but it is based on technology that was created in the ‘80s,” says Marich.
A digital shopfront
Whilst almost every business aviation firm has a digital shopfront, accessible via the internet, that software-based front can disguise the manual, analogue workings of backroom staff. However, even a digital front is a step in the right direction, says Vernitsky. “I would say all of our customers wanted a digital front so that the workflows are convenient for the owners and that is part of the digitisation process and streamlining the work. Because a lot of the stuff that the owners used to do manually, that took time from the operator. Even if it is still messy in-house it still reduces the amount of work that the operator has to do and makes it clearer for the owners.”
9In the past, a significant portion of digitisation has been kept to the front end, according to Marich. While he too thinks it is a step in the right direction, this is not the path MySky embarked upon and does not maximise potential efficiency, says Marich. “We [the industry] wanted to look technological but in the back of the house we are still the same old kitchen. It is a start but I don’t think it is sustainable without the backend and the building blocks that come with that. For example, when you just focus on revenue but you don't understand cost and therefore margin it is quite hard to sustain in the long term. It is our belief that you should look at this from the bottom up, change how an operator works at the core and build it up.”
The move to streamline operations internally is being largely driven by larger operators, says Vernitsky at Portside. Those bigger companies, which audit software providers like Portside multiple times per year, are also forcing the business aviation tech firms to become more cyber secure. A process that has gathered momentum over the past two years, he says.
One example of the digitisation Portside can offer is a billing product that assists with compiling owner statements. “This is a very time consuming and error-prone process for a lot of people. Now the system the accountants use and how account managers approve and review statements is being digitised.” The dispatch process is also moving to digital. Crew optimisation products enable larger operators to fly more efficiently and for less. “So, all of a sudden the work that a dispatcher used to manually is now digitised. We are also working on a number of other products too,” adds Vernitsky.
There are lessons to be learnt from the airline industry as to why the digitisation of business aviation has lagged behind, according to Byron Severson, founder, TallyHo!, a digital solution connecting users with a full range of aviation services from catering to maintenance. Until around 20 years ago, running airlines was about loss not profit, he says. “The move to digitise processes has now led to airlines become pretty solidly profitable business models. I tend to think that business aviation follows behind and it is efficiency that drives everything,” Severson tells CJI.
The industry lags behind for two reasons, he says. First, because business aviation models have traditionally resulted in wider profit margins. Second, business aviation is a small industry when compared with commercial aviation or hospitality. “There are a lot of applications out there in wider world – in real estate or airlines – just because the scale is so much greater. I’ve seen that even as I’ve sought investment for my own projects. Interest often dwindles down, there are very few people who find aviation sexy because the numbers aren't there,” says Severson. So, what can be done? “As a software provider you have to look at how could this cross into other worlds? Otherwise, you are really capped at what that top line revenue can be.”
Delaware-based Rosterize, a start-up that calls itself “an autopilot for fleet and crew scheduling”, is aiming to offer small operators software-based crew optimisation. Co-founder, Maxim Andreyev believes that private jet clients are demanding a contemporary digital experience and the industry should encourage more young people to work within it because they are more likely to be digital natives. “It is a shame that travellers need to call, email and negotiate to book a charter flight instead of doing everything from the mobile phone. It needs newcomers to work in the industry. The new generation grew up surrounded by amazing digital products; thus, they expect the same employee experience,” said Andreyev.
“Operators are not digital superheroes for now, and they should learn the lessons of digital pioneers...”
An operator now has to digitise every part of the business in order to compete. “The question is not only how to design the transformation process. Honestly, operators are not digital superheroes for now, and they should learn the lessons of digital pioneers, such as IT companies and the financial sector.” Andreyev highlights two key aspects: digital transformation is about people, not software, and it is not a project but a never-ending process. “You cannot buy some software and feel safe. Operators must rethink and redesign their operations permanently, considering IT services as valuable tools, not a silver bullet,” he says.
There can be no doubt that the levels of silver, gold, platinum and a long list of other metals found in computers are rising exponentially in the offices and work spaces of business aviation professionals and users. A provider might tell you that one factor is driving change more than another and those can and will change over time. But they all agree the days of email chains longer than a fuselage, Post-it notes and Microsoft Excel-everything will not last.
Flapper's smartphone app has more than 350,000 users worldwide.
Future hinges on embracing digital transformation – Norm Happ, Veryon: In our view
Future hinges on embracing digital transformation – Norm Happ, Veryon: In our view
THE RAPID digitisation of business aviation is revolutionising the industry, writes Norm Happ, CEO, Veryon, a leading provider of aviation information services and software solutions. This is top of mind for us. This shift aligns with the broader trend of digitisation observed in various sectors sending a clear message: to remain competitive, operators must fully embrace digital advancements.
Efficiency and transparency are driving this change. Aircraft owners and operators, accustomed to instant, user-friendly digital experiences in their daily personal lives, now expect the same convenience in managing their aviation assets. The ease of ordering a car or food through a smartphone app has raised the bar. This demand for streamlined processes, real-time data access and user-friendly interfaces are steering the industry toward adopting software-based solutions.
The days of email chains, Post-it notes, and Microsoft Excel are numbered. These outdated practices no longer meet the complex needs of modern operators. Our software solutions catalyse this transformation, replacing archaic methods with streamlined, automated processes that enhance transparency, boost efficiency, and elevate the overall operational experience.
Challenges like unscheduled repairs, part availability and excessive paperwork often keep aircraft grounded for extended periods, resulting in delays and financial losses. The key to achieving more uptime lies in adopting technology. Platforms like Veryon Tracking provide real-time visibility into data, enabling operators to maximise aircraft value and balance return on investment. It's an end-to-end aviation management platform that integrates maintenance tracking, inventory management, flight operations and work order management in a single platform, offering cross-departmental real-time data visibility.
The digitisation of business aviation is an ongoing journey. As leaders in this industry, we believe that sustained innovation, collaboration, and adaptation are vital for success in the digital age. The industry's future hinges on embracing digital transformation to meet the evolving needs of owners, operators, and travellers alike.
At Veryon, we are deeply committed to this transformation, dedicating our efforts to develop solutions that get our customers’ aircraft more uptime. By harnessing evolving technology, we aim to pave the way for a new era of efficient air travel.
Norm Happ, CEO Veryon: “Digitalisation of business aviation is revolutionising the industry.”
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CJI Connect
Conor McDougall Garmin [email protected]
Greg Principato National Aeronautic Association, President and CEO [email protected]
