Cloud-based maintenance-tracking company Flightdocs has merged with Aircraft Technical Publishers (ATP) in a move aimed at creating a comprehensive provider of software and information services to the business, commercial, and military aviation sectors. The merger agreement between Florida-based Flightdocs and San Francisco-based ATP was signed this week.
Under the ATP umbrella, the combined offerings of each company include aircraft maintenance tracking, troubleshooting, recurring defect analysis, inventory management, and flight scheduling, as well as a library of technical publications and regulatory content. ATP CEO Rick Noble told AIN that his company experimented with the maintenance tracking business but was âlate to the gameâ and âcouldnât gain any traction,â so âfor ATP it really was an easy decisionâ to merge.
ATPâs Aviation Hub, offered under ATP Information Services, supplies OEM technical and regulatory publications that are updated in real-time, while its Software Solutions division in Canada provides defect management and interactive troubleshooting software under the brands of ChronicX and SpotLight. With the merger, ATP serves 75,000 maintenance personnel at 7,500 MROs and flight departments in 137 countries.
For Flightdocs CEO Rick Heine, the merger makes sense in a variety of ways, even though when the discussions with ATP started three months ago, a merger was the last thing he was planning. âWe originally were in the market to raise additional capital and move the company forward toâŚultimately to try to get to the top spot [in maintenance tracking market share],â Heine told AIN. But when they began talking, Heine said with ATPâs footprint in the market, as well as its depth, size, scope, and products, âthere were so many synergies there that coming together really made a lot of sense.â It was also a deal that he claimed benefits Flightdocsâ customers and employees. âIt was a win, win, win across the board,â he said.
âWhen you put all those things together and you look at the future, weâre pretty much in the business aviation world,â Heine explained. âBut the ATP combination allows us to go through commercial, military, and back again, bringing their products and services into business aviation. It also really brings the products and services [customers of Flightdocs] wanted to their flight departments and makes their experiences better.â
While Flightdocs products and services expand and round out ATPâs offerings, having it in the ATP fold also presents opportunities for expanded or new products and services, Noble explained. âItâs not just sort of putting the two companies together and leaving it at that.â
At that top of the post-merger to-do list is enabling Flightdocsâ maintenance customers access to ATPâs Aviation Hubâs technical documents. Also, a third of ATPâs Aviation Hub revenue comes from international customers. Noble said his company will use those relationships to expand Flightdocsâ market share overseas, where it will face competition from existing products. âIâm really confident weâre going to have the same success there that Flightdocs has had in the U.S.,â he said.
Noble added that the merged company also will look at the feasibility of offering versions of SpotLight and ChronicX to corporate flight departments. âI only half-jokingly said the other day that thereâs so many opportunities here that we run the risk of trying to do everything and accomplish nothing,â Noble added. âSo weâre going to have to figure out pretty early on what the top two or three things are and really focus on those before we start moving on to the next.â