The Story of AIR SUPPORT
The Idea
The PPS – Preflight Planning System started like many other good software inventions as a simple but very unique idea in one man’s mind. Back in 1988, Per Jensen flew night cargo operations for a small airline as a captain between Denmark and the UK. During those long cosy nights, Per was wondering why the airline’s dispatch department always planned the flight in the same FL, no matter what the cargo load was and no matter how the winds and temperatures were affecting flight performance. He calculated that all depending on actual load carried and the en-route winds and temperature forecast data the aircraft’s minimum time FL and the minimum trip fuel FL were almost always quite different. But most important when comparing the aircraft’s DOC costs per minute to the Fuel costs per minute in relation to the aircraft’s performance profile for all available FL’s, the overall best economical FL were in the majority of all cases a 3rd different FL.
The data recordings Per Jensen made showed that the typical FL spread between the minimum time FL, minimum trip fuel FL and the best economical FL was typically up to 4000 feet higher or down to 6000 feet lower from night to night compared to the fixed FL the airline cargo company was using for the turboprop cargo plane he was flying. Due to Per’s previous experience as a software engineer programming navigation programs for military submarines, mine-destroyers and amphibian vehicles, he went home and made a software program that could calculate the best economical FL. An extended aircraft performance database was soon added along with an ATC route database along with a function that could print-out the ATS flight plan format for submitting the flight plan. An airport and navigation waypoint database was also added where the user himself could insert the airports as well as waypoints typically used. Back in these days restrictions were far less than today and once an ATS route had been inserted manually in the program, a unique feature could reverse the routing automatically for the return flight. Per approached operators in Denmark with the new program, but to his disappointment operators were not interested, however, a couple of operators stated that if the program could be modified to calculate charter quotations they would be very interested, especially if the system could print out or fax a finished charter quotation right after doing the calculation. Per went back to programming and within few weeks the PPS Price Calculation System version 1 was ready. This program was an imminent success and the majority of Danish charter operators bought the program with great success. AIR SUPPORT was established on 1st February 1989 and was now on the move…!
AIR SUPPORT on the Move
After establishing AIR SUPPORT, Per Jensen worked on further refinements of the flight planning system and incorporated a waypoint database that he kept updated for selected areas. This service made a difference to several operators and the first PPS flight planning system was sold in 1990. For a couple of years Per was still flying night cargo operations from time to time to support his personal income, since the majority of money flowing into the company was reinvested to fund the growth of the company. In 1993 Sales and Marketing Director Jens Pisarski joined Per Jensen in order to strengthen the business side of Air Support. This was among other things done through immediate visits at existing as well as potential customers with only one purpose – to ask them what their needs were.
Up to this point, AIR SUPPORT had been focusing on the ad hoc business aviation segment, however, Jens realised that if the company should grow into a mature player in the flight planning system market other segments such as cargo operators, regional airlines and military operators had to be addressed very early in the phase, not just on the sales side but also in relation to the development side. The first tour included visits in 7 different European countries with focus on Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria where numerous prospective clients were interviewed. The conclusion was that the clients in general wanted a dynamic graphical route planning tool within the PPS program along with a solid navigation data update service. One cargo operator in Switzerland stressed the importance of having the graphical routing tool while a Learjet 35 operator in Sion, Switzerland, decided to buy PPS providing the salesman promised that the graphical routing tool would be part of the delivery contract, which he did of course. The way ahead was clear: PPS needed a graphical route planning screen and solid nav data update services. Per programmed the PPS Fast Routing generator over just a few intensive weeks. Contact was also established to SWISSAIR Navigation Services who at the time produced ARINC 424 navigation data for the KSSA consortium (a navigation data cooperation established between KLM, SAS, SWISSAIR and AIR FRANCE). When SWISSAIR Navigation Services saw the PPS system for the first time they got very interested and enthusiatic about the co-operation and a data service agreement was signed.
During the winter 1993/1994, supply of SWISSAIR nav data services commenced and this enabled AIR SUPPORT to start selling update service subscriptions to all existing clients which immediately increased the money flowing into the company at a critical time, since the company had not yet reached the critical mass in relation to the number of clients. The flight planning conditions within European airspace changed significantly during 1993, TOS (traffic orientation schemes) and CRS (conditional routing schemes) had already been introduced for upper airspace/high level operators and Germany introduced “German Standard Routes”. These routes consisted of more than 5000 designated route restriction combinations for flight over, into, out-of and within German airspace. These routes presented a problem for the operators because no tools were available to handle the terms and conditions which arose as a consequence of the standard routes. Flight Planning route calculations for European operators had by beginning of 1994 suddenly become very complex. A special German standard route database was built into PPS and in cooperation with the DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung a two-way cooperation was established. AIR SUPPORT tested all new and changed German standard routes in relation to the SWISSAIR ARINC 424 nav database prior to release, while DFS supplied AIR SUPPORT with the updated changed routings at each AIRAC cycle. Having these important data increased the value of the PPS System dramatically in the market place, since this would be relevant to any operator flying into, out-of, over or with-in German airspace. The German Standard Route database turned out to be a unique selling point compared to the competitors.
Defining the Business Strategy
The marketing focus used from early 1994 was built up upon the well known but not so often used traditional business strategy of concentrating efforts in a defined market and avoiding spreading the resources while making “silent” sales in order not to awaken the competitors. Since Per Jensen as well Jens Pisarski both spoke the German language fluently, the German speaking clients felt much more confidence throughout the sales phase as well as the installation and training phase. Germany quickly became a key market for AIR SUPPORT and still is today with a PPS market share among all registered AOC holders in Germany of more than 50 % and numerous private business aircraft operators.
While focussing on the German market several segments were approached such as cargo operators and smaller regional airline operators. During the end of 1994 AIR SUPPORT managed to secure its first airline order after 6 months of intensive sales work with INTEROT AIRWAYS in Augsburg, Germany (which were later to become AUGSBURG AIRWAYS and part of the Lufthansa Group). All selling was done on the basis of personal on-site sales meetings with focus on the customer’s requirements which also provided the advantage of getting valuable feedback that could be used in the development of PPS. During the end of 1994 the Danish charter airline STERLING AIRLINES followed the development of PPS closely and only two items were missing if they were to implement PPS. One was the lack of en-route winds and temperature forecast data. The other missing item was a software module which could handle multiple scheduled flight legs for the summer and winter flight schedules while allowing easy daily dispatch of all flights. Winds and temperature data was obtained from WMO Bracknell through the Danish Met Institute and over a couple of months the Scheduled Flight Planning module was born which offered STERLING the required functions. STERLING AIRLINES quickly decided to go for PPS and became our first jet airline to implement PPS.
During the next couple of years the main focus was still the German and Scandinavian markets. In 1997 Netherlands and Belgium were added along with Switzerland and Austria as focus markets and the number of staff increased to a whopping total of just 4 persons. The business aviation segment was the primary target during this sales expansion phase, but a certain percentage of the sales resources was invested in new segments like cargo airline operators, regional airlines and military operators to make sure that the company over time could access these additional segments more efficiently.
The RAD Boom
During the summer of 1998 Eurocontrol ceased to use the old TOS and CRS route restrictions and introduced the RAD – Route Availability Document, a document available only in Word format at the time which described all present and many new route restrictions applying for any given flight into, out-of and within the CFMU area. Eurocontrol could not be persuaded to put the data into a standard database format which could be used by flight planning vendors. Instead AIR SUPPORT decided to develop a special electronic RAD database just for PPS where all the text information from the Eurocontrol RAD document was inserted and kept updated by AIR SUPPORT’s own navigation personnel.
At the same time Eurocontrol enforced that if the slightest deviation occurred for any submitted ATS flight plan the flight plan would be rejected. The majority of operators suddenly faced a lot of complex operational planning problems never seen before and rapid solutions were sought. After AIR SUPPORT launched the eRAD data service, the number of operators signing up for PPS increased rapidly. During 1999 a total of 48 new AOC clients signed up for the PPS solution since PPS at the time was the only solution available which offered an eRAD data solution. Creation of the eRAD for PPS at this early stage gave AIR SUPPORT a unique selling point and a significant competitive advantage which helped gain sales momentum throughout Europe in the years to follow.
The Development Strategy
The development experience up through the 90’ties had shown that it was crucial to use client input actively when developing the PPS software and data solutions. It had also shown that flexibility and ability to accommodate each client’s operational needs was of high importance. At the same time, the Internet applications technology was expanding rapidly which offered many new possibilities.
Just before the millennium AIR SUPPORT decided to apply a long term development strategy which defines that maximum efforts and 30 % of all resources are constantly invested in software and data service development. However, the approach of developing the system and services based on customer input is still today one of the cornerstones in the AIR SUPPORT business philosophy. The above strategy enabled AIR SUPPORT to develop the web-based PPS CrewBriefing solution shortly after the millennium which today forms an important and integral part of the PPS Flight Planning solution.
Another important and integral part of the PPS Flight Planning solution is the high quality navigation data supplied at each 28 day AIRAC cycle with global coverage. These data are supplied from Lufthansa Systems in Zürich which AIR SUPPORT selected as the primary nav data supplier when the collapse of the SWISSAIR Group became imminent.
Going International
The success of the PPS Preflight Planning System was not unnoticed around the world and in the years around the millennium. Over the years, AIR SUPPORT’s customer base has grown considerably to include clients from 30 different countries, mainly in Europe but also as far away as Mexico, Middle East and Asia. AIR SUPPORT has today more than 260 clients who operate more than 2400 turboprop and jet aircraft daily consisting of more than 280 different aircraft types within private, corporate and commercial business aviation operators and regional/national/charter/cargo airlines as well as military operators.
Optimisation and Integration is the Way forward…
Being well established in the world of flight planning software providers, AIR SUPPORT has since 2003 been focusing on adding advanced calculation features and automation features to help optimizing the economy in flying, not just for airlines but also for business aviation operators who are more and more focused on conducting flights on basis of the lowest total costs.
AIR SUPPORT has developed calculation features which allows the operator to plan a given flight on basis of minimum total production costs which considers not just the aircraft DOC costs and fuel costs in relation to en-route winds/temps and aircraft weight and performance but also incorporates the route specific overflight charges (airway en-route charges/Eurocontrol charges). Another important area of development has been automatic coupling with and data interfacing to other software systems such as crew, schedule and load management systems which offers airline operators fully automated flight plan filing and flight briefing calculations along with calculation of optimum fuel uplift policy for each aircraft’s consecutive flight legs. The above features has during the last 5 years enabled a steady growth in the number of airline operators using PPS with data integration to 3rd party systems. Such integration is also increasingly relevant to large commercial business jet operators as well as the new generation of high-volume short-range jet operators.
Further integration projects are currently under development such as export of operational flight data to EFB solutions and export of calculated trip fuel data into FDM Flight Data Monitoring systems for statistical purposes. Other upcoming new projects include post-flight data registration facilities via PPS CrewBriefing and pda mobile phones.
The development of the PPS Flight Planning and CrewBriefing solutions will continue in the coming years with ever increasing pace and ambitions. If you choose to get on-board the PPS train, we can promise you that you will get the most innovative and serious partner you can find in the flight planning market while still retaining realistic implementation and running costs.