Avinode has worked over recent years to consolidate its position among the largest providers of charter information for brokers. The Swedish company comes to NBAA this year with a growing presence in the U.S., based in Miami and with a development center in Portland, Ore. Its headquarters is in Gothenburg, though since December 2014 it has been majority-owned by Multi Service Technology Solutions (a subsidiary of World Fuel).

Niklas Berg, Avinode co-founder and CEO, said at the time: “Multi Service Technology Solutions is the perfect fit for Avinode. The company’s expertise in business-to-business payment and transaction processing and aviation software development will help us further strengthen Avinode’s product offering, maintaining our position as the indispensable technology partner for air charter sales.”

Oliver King, managing director of Avinode (Booth N5222), told AIN that the company is retaining its identity under the new owner and that it will continue its focus on the charter market (for example it sold Wyvern Consulting in October 2014 as part of this focusing strategy). However its new owner does have broad capabilities in information technology and the Internet so is able to assist Avinode in developing further. The company is currently developing an Android App for its Avinode Marketplace app, which it launched on the iOS platform in July. Avinode has plans to enhance the app to allow payments. “You don’t need a glass ball to guess where we’re going,” he said.

“Marketplace has been around for 10 years, but now we have a whole generation that wants to do business on a mobile [device]. So we have been building a messaging platform that allows people to send a request out and deal with them; we call it Trips. It will let brokers and operators do business 24/7, support their clients in real time and show everything to do with your trip as it happens.”

The company has also “released a whole set of API products,” he said, as users of Avinode’s data “want access to the raw information and the logic to embed it in their own applications.”

King said that the U.S. market has been robust and growing. “In the U.S. it’s the operator side leading, for example Kenny [Dichter, of Wheels Up] with the King Airs, Surf Air with turboprops, trying different business models. It will be interesting to see how they develop.”

Per Marthinson, managing director Avinode Americas, said that business aviation flying in the U.S. was up 5 percent in July compared to July 2014. He noted that the North American industry was becoming “more familiar with Avinode Marketplace and the benefits it brings.” He added, “One notable development in the North American market, for example, is the increasing number of users utilizing Avinode Marketplace as their primary communication channel with business partners. Historically, users would search the system for information and then call to make the actual arrangements, rather than sending the request through electronically. Now, however, we are processing more requests than ever before. In August 2015 [this increased] by 30 percent versus August 2014. And the trend is set to continue,” he predicted.