After a year of programming and Web design, Globalair.com has unveiled a new graphical fuel-price route planning service that allows operators to plot trips via airports offering the lowest fuel prices. Globalair.com’s new Max-Trax service shows prices at FBOs that participate in the company’s Airport Resource Center (ARC) information service, for both jet-A and 100LL avgas buyers. Demos are available at Globalair.com’s NBAA booth (No. 1848).

After logging in to the Max-Trax Web site, users can plug in parameters for a trip, including departure and destination, maximum leg length and type of fuel. Trips can be saved for later use or updating. Max-Trax allows users to select alternate airports based on various criteria and to view airports quickly in a 50-nm circle around any area in the U.S. (Double-clicking on any spot in the map brings up the 50-nm circle.) Airports with Globalair ARC fuel pricing information are shown in red and other airports in blue.

Subscribers pay $22.50 per month for Max-Trax jet-A service and $12.50 per month for 100LL. A combination account is available for $35 per month, allowing both jet-A and 100LL access. Max-Trax can save up to the last 10 routes.

Globalair.com has 1,469 U.S. FBOs participating in its fuel price listings. Basic participation is free to any FBO, and there are additional levels of service, too. The company is offering a certain number of free Max-Trax searches, depending on the FBO’s level of participation in Globalair.com. The FBO could use these free searches for their own flight operations or for those of customers.

Max-Trax is a useful service that can help schedulers and dispatchers, charter operators and owners find the best fuel prices on trips in the U.S. “Everybody’s asking for a better way to search for fuel prices,” said Jeff Carrithers, Globalair.com president and CEO. “We can’t affect the fuel prices, but we can affect how flight departments find fuel in a given area.”