Running a flight department or charter operation is complicated. There's always the basic task of scheduling flights to avoid conflicts and maximize aircraft utilization, of course, but the modern flight department also must ensure staffing requirements are met, and that maintenance and training tasks are completed on time.

None of those tasks consider a customer's special needs, like their favorite food and drink, or in-flight entertainment. And that must be accomplished before engine start. If only there were automated communication tools a flight department could deploy to simplify, organize and verify all these tasks.

That's the idea behind Flight Key (Booth C7723), a new task, management, communication and collaboration platform designed for flight departments, charter operations, crews and brokers to all work in sync. Flight Key is an app-based service for the iOS and Android platforms as well as the web designed for managing, planning, scheduling and monitoring flight operations, worldwide and in real-time.

The service allows the user to create a new flight's basic details, then invite an unlimited number of participants to follow along in real-time. Specific tasks can be assigned to specific individuals and all participants can be brought into a live chat at any time. The new service is set to kick off shortly after NBAA 2017 concludes.