Online aeronautical chart provider and flight planning resource SkyVector (Booth 3691) announced at NBAA2014 that it will now accept advertising on its website, offering companies the opportunity to reach its audience of pilots, schedulers and dispatchers.

“It is our hope that by growing our advertising revenues, we can continue to expand our product offerings,” SkyVector founder David Graves told AIN. “We have many features on our wish list that become possible with just a little more revenue, [including] international approach plates, expanded weather radar coverage and better source data for our worldwide charts.”

Graves also noted that advertising would help keep SkyVector a free resource to the pilot community. “We believe that the day we put up a paywall will be the last day that a student pilot bookmarks us as his favorite site,” he added.

SkyVector made headlines in 2010 as the first online chart provider to license patents held by Aurora, Ore.-based FlightPrep on graphical route overlays on Web-based navigational charts. Graves said the company’s decision to pursue a new revenue stream is unrelated to any ongoing costs from that agreement.

“While it was a bitter pill to swallow, we are generally happy [with] the terms of our deal with FlightPrep,” he said. “We were successful in negotiating a deal that gives us the freedom to pursue our objectives, without compromise, for a price that anyone would consider reasonable.”

According to the company, more than 350,000 unique users visit skyvector.com each month.