Press Release

Issued by Avinode Group.

April 25, 2012

During its ten-year history Avinode has succeeded in bringing massive change to the business aviation industry, and year ten aims to be no different. With the launch of its new marketplace on January first, Avinode kicked off its tenth year with the same revolutionary drive that marked its emergence a decade ago.

When Avinode launched its website in 2002 business aviation was ripe for change. Decades of paper-based processes and phone-based sourcing methods had left the industry languishing in the 20th century, but Avinode aimed to change all that.

"In 2002 the phone book and faxes were the best possible ways of finding an available airplane, but we had a hard time understanding why it should be so complicated," Says Avinode Co-founder and Managing Director of Marketplace Americas, Per Marthinsson. "Avinode was founded with the conviction that this needed to change and that operators and brokers were waiting for an easier way to find each other."

The idea behind Avinode was simple; make air charter available by bringing buyers and sellers together in a state-of-the-art online marketplace.

The project got off to a humble start in January of 2001, as the three co-founders began creating a system that would meet their bold vision. In September of 2002, after nearly two years of work, the system went live launching 45 brave companies into the 21st century.

In the ten years since it opened, Avinode has grown from a clever aircraft search engine into the world's leading system for sourcing private charter, spanning some 80% of the global charter market.

"The key to success has been Avinode´s long hard work establishing a truly global network of professional buyers and sellers by focusing on relationship-building," says Avinode Co-founder and CEO, Niclas Wennerholm, "and by training clients to understand the advantages of doing business electronically. We are a technology company at heart but our products are driven by the real needs of real people."

Early expansion of the system included a number features aimed at streamlining the overall workflow such as integrated quotation tools, a built-in message center, and tools to support direct integration with members' fleet management systems.

At the same time the system saw the appearance of new products meant to help members expand their reach. Products like Avinode Link and, its descendants, the Avinode Web and Mobile App family, have helped to increase visibility for both marketplace member companies, and the industry as a whole, by enabling Avinode members to offer real-time search and request functionality, powered by the Avinode Marketplace, on their own websites.

In addition, Avinode also expanded its product offerings to data, with the creation of its Avinode Business Intelligence unit. This unit was initially geared towards providing data to Avinode members, but after only three years, Avinode BI has already succeeded beyond the company's wildest dreams. Today it provides data not only to Avinode members, but also to aircraft manufacturers, FBOs, trade organizations, and press, education, and financial institutions.

Then in 2010, Avinode took another leap forward when it acquired the U.S.-based marketplace juggernaut, CharterX. This year's New Marketplace launch marked the integration between the Avinode and CharterX systems, which has effectively brought the substantial U.S. and European business aviation markets onto the same platform for the first time in history.

"After 10 years, we are still only at the beginning of all the great things we can do to improve efficiency and profitability in the business aviation industry," says Avinode Co-founder and SchedAero Managing Director, Niklas Berg. "I'm really excited about the future".