During 2020, AviationManuals and sister company ARC Safety Management invested heavily in software development, introduced new manual offerings and added personnel to continue to provide responsive support. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted aviation overall, the company was able to weather the economic downturn. By quickly responding to changing market needs with new product offerings, AviationManuals and ARC were able to add nearly 300 new clients and grow by more than 25 per cent.

“The impact of the pandemic has been enormous,” says company CEO Mark Baier. “As the aviation industry shifted, we were able to use our agility as a strength to quickly respond to changing customer needs. As 2020 progressed, we recognised that flight departments were utilising the forced downtime to improve their internal operations. Our philosophy is, and has always been, to make improving your aviation operation simple, in any environment, by providing tools that are easy to implement.

“As with everyone else, we begin 2021 hopeful that the roll out of the Coronavirus vaccine will have a positive impact on people's lives and the economy. Along with launching more exciting software updates in the first few months of 2021, we have also developed a new suite of services for Part 135 operators, which we recently announced. At the same time, we are swiftly expanding into new markets in Europe, Latin America, Australia, South Africa and Asia. Our goal is to expand our international sales beyond the current 30 percent. We're doubling down on our ability to deliver both software and manuals to aviation operators everywhere.”

AviationManuals and ARC Safety Management also invested heavily in improving their software, particularly in the area of metrics. Now clients can better analyse their internal metrics and customise them to their own operations. ARC's entire metrics dashboard is richer and far more interactive, making it a more valuable tool after the latest December release.

During 2020, AviationManuals and ARC grew their team by 20 per cent and introduced a number of new products, including: COVID-19 procedures for flight, ground, emergency response plans and FBOs; a guide for minimum equipment lists (MELs) and additional advisors to handle increased activity in response to FAA updates, registering a record year for MEL activity; augmented ARC Safety Management Systems risk assessment tools with a multi-stage approval process; maintenance manuals for business aviation flight departments; a new complimentary in-depth flight planning guide available for download on AviationManuals' website; designation as an IS-BAO programme support affiliate; additional staff to support software, account management and operations and set up a customer success department; and new European representation and increased support for operators on San Marino and the Isle of Man registries.