Billing itself as the world’s biggest online air charter marketplace, Avinode has come to MEBA 2008 with one of the show’s most expansive exhibits (Stand No. 200) and an optimistic outlook that runs counter to the global economic slowdown now affecting many charter operators.

The Swedish company’s Web site (www.avinode.com) is home to more than 900 charter firms operating some 2,800 aircraft. Avinode claims it handles close to 60,000 charter requests per month and lists an average of 3,000 empty charter legs at any given time.

Partners in this region include ExecuJet Middle East, Royal Jet, Empire Aviation Group, Chapman Freeborn and International Air Charter, among others. Avinode is exhibiting with eight of its members from around the world, including Air Independence of Germany, Air Lazur of Bulgaria, Arkas Aviation of Turkey, Capital Jets of Russia, ExcelAire of the U.S., Rayajet of Jordan, Omni Aviação of Portugal and Twinjet Aircraft of the UK.

“Given the opportunity to be among our industry colleagues, we thought not just to exhibit but rather to show just what it is that we do and who we are–to give our content a face, so to speak,” said Avinode CEO and cofounder Niclas Wennerholm, who also noted that Avinode has a growing client base despite a broad slowdown in charter activity in many parts of the world.

Avinode partners input their empty charter legs into the site’s database, allowing customers to check for aircraft availability from a large pool. Here at MEBA, Avinode announced it has joined forces with flight operations management firms CTA and Travico to provide a feature that streamlines the charter booking process by sending trip requests to an operator’s CTA Flight Operations System or Travico Bizflight account.

The company has also launched a “pending trips” feature on its site that lets users track their charter requests and responses and added advanced business intelligence reports for Premium and Enterprise users. The intelligence stats provide the latest information about charter requests and which aircraft and airports are being sourced.