Press Release

Issued by Private Flight Global.

May 26, 2014

Onboard a luxury jet, food and beverage offerings should never fail to meet the exceptionally high standards of the vip passenger. However, slow or inefficient internal communications can often reduce vital planning time for operators and caterers, thus negatively affecting the inflight experience.

Because the technology experts at Private Flight Global believe that every second counts when it comes to flight planning, they have announced the creation of an Application Programming Interface (API) specifically targeting this issue. From an analysis of its data and discussions with clients Private Flight has found many 'last minute orders' are the result of an information transfer delay in an organisation, rather than short notice times given by a customer. For example, the Flight Operations or Dispatch team has confirmed a flight in their scheduling software yet the internal process leading to the Flight Attendant eventually being informed is slow.

Private Flight has overcome the information transfer delay by introducing the API, which sits between an operator's scheduling software and Private Flight's advanced catering software – supporting an automatic relay of critical data between the two systems. This automated exchange of key information (departure details, aircraft registration, handler information, passenger requests, etc.) creates a draft catering order by instantly populating key data fields. It can then prompt operating personnel to take further action to prepare the journey.

“This feature enables those responsible for placing catering orders, such as flight attendants or centralized ordering teams, to receive specific flight information as soon as a flight is confirmed,” explained Matt Peart, chief operations officer at Private Flight Global. “An email notification with a quick-link to the order completion process allows staff to submit a catering request to one of our 1100 global providers very promptly after flight confirmation. When an order is submitted to the catering provider, its details are then pushed back over to the operator's flight planning software, making a record available in that system as well. All this provides longer lead times which correlate to a more positive passenger experience.”

This API was developed by Private Flight Global in response to a real need in the industry to improve consistency of service for vip passenger by supporting performance at the operator level. The API is relatively simple to install and to use, and generally carries no additional cost for Private Flight Global's operator clients. “This is an added value proposition that we have established for all of our customers,” said Peart. “We have worked only with the latest technologies in developing our Version 3 catering management software and we have been rewarded with the agility to respond quickly to our customer's needs with new applications and features.”

On Private Flight Global's stand at EBACE 2014 (3218), the API functionality garnered a lot of interest from private jet operators both large and small.

Private Flight Global and its launch customer (a large and rapidly-growing operator with significant expansion plans) are currently running final tests on the Application Programming Interface. A full rollout with this first customer is expected to take place in a matter of weeks, with many more customers on track to benefit from API in the near term.