Sweden’s Schedaero, a subsidiary of charter booking engine provider Avinode, has made a new iOS app available to all Schedaero following “extensive beta testing and successful integrations with selected members.” The app helps users to streamline flight operations—from accepting new missions and checking crew and passenger information to completing flight and duty logging, while also including information on airports and FBOs.
Johan Sjöberg, executive vice president of Schedaero, said the company will showcase the app during its official launch at NBAA-BACE. He told AIN it has been very well received by the 300 or so pilots who have beta-tested it, leading to release of the first version in the run-up to the industry’s largest gathering in Las Vegas. The company had no plans to release an Android version as “most pilots are happy with iOS.”
He said the latest feature to be added was flight logging, noting that more features would be added “in the coming months,” including duty logging and expense reporting. “Both of these will be added by the end of the year,” Sjöberg added. In fact, he revealed Schedaero had already “done more than 430 releases already…we do continuous development” in what he describes as a “very sophisticated development process.” Many of the changes have been the result of pilot feedback.
The app represents the next step in the digital transformation of flight operations in business aviation, according to the company. For example, Sjöberg said flight logs need entering only once and then this information immediately allows the system to update aircraft records, enabling any notifications to be returned. Use of the app is part of a Schedaero subscription and many operators have a company license based on the number of aircraft in their fleet, he said. A total of around 3,000 pilots have access to the app through their company subscriptions.
Sjöberg pointed out that Schedaero goes beyond use by business aviation into airlines and air-taxi operators, as well as larger flight schools. This is beyond the charter database of its parent company, Avinode, which alone has 800 or more operators—and “up in the thousands” of operators worldwide, potentially.
He said it was “cool to see” operators adopting the app in their operations “straight away”—something that surprised Schedaero. However, the operators could see the advantages immediately and particularly liked the push notifications. “People are always surprised it does so much,” he said, suggesting “everyone at NBAA should come by our stand to see as so much has changed in Schedaero,” in addition to the new app.
He concluded by saying larger operators are showing interest in the API capabilities and some have already integrated it into their own systems. However, he was keen to stress that the app is not a flight planning tool and will not become one, though through its API others can incorporate Schedaero with flight planning tools in their own systems.
