FlightOps software
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From: Worldwide
FlightOps software
I have recently been put in charge of flight ops for a small bizjet operator(4 planes). Can anyone recomend any software out there to assist with running day to day tasks such as crew scheduling, FDT calculations. Nothing fancy required anything would be a step up from the pen and paper that is now being used and our budget is limited for the more complex Figthtops systems. Any excel templates/spreadsheets would also work great.
Joined: Jan 2003
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From: Bristol
We implemented Airops this year, quite commercially driven with a few Ops functions tagged on. Sounds like a step up from your current situation, but certainly seems to have a long learning curve. Would be interested in others experience, I have used PPS too, again good in parts but didn't tickk all the boxes.
PB
PB
Joined: Feb 2007
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From: Various at the moment
AIROPS is rubbish when it comes to day-to-day ops/crewing functions but good on the commercial side of the coin. For busy, fast changing environments, AIROPS is too slow, too random, and the support virtually non existent. I would avoid it.....
Joined: Jan 2003
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From: Bristol
I have had a look, seems a bit too simplistic for me. I have started putting a brief together to have something written specifically for our Op that would cover quoting, flight set-up (and the document control of set-up) flight watch and an online calender / Ops board.
Phil
Phil
Joined: Feb 2007
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From: Various at the moment
Phil
Companies with 3 aircraft have used Acrobatico, and some with 23 aircraft have used it. Not sure what you mean by "simplistic" but I'm sure the likes of Monarch and Excel find it a very good package having endorsed it for years. Having used it myself in the past, I too found it a very good package.
Anyway, good luck with your project. I agree that Acrobatico won't provide the quoting aspects, but then any good XL spreadsheet will do that !!
Companies with 3 aircraft have used Acrobatico, and some with 23 aircraft have used it. Not sure what you mean by "simplistic" but I'm sure the likes of Monarch and Excel find it a very good package having endorsed it for years. Having used it myself in the past, I too found it a very good package.
Anyway, good luck with your project. I agree that Acrobatico won't provide the quoting aspects, but then any good XL spreadsheet will do that !!
Joined: Jan 2003
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From: Bristol
The quoting side isn't tricky, neither is the crewing, neither is the document flow, but getting something integrated with one point of data is.
Acrobaticio looks good for what it does, but that is not what I want. Airops has come closest, but is querky and cumbersome from trying to satisfy too many operators requirements.
We moved on from spreadsheet based quote calculations 8 years ago,
Phil
Acrobaticio looks good for what it does, but that is not what I want. Airops has come closest, but is querky and cumbersome from trying to satisfy too many operators requirements.
We moved on from spreadsheet based quote calculations 8 years ago,
Phil
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 1,197
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From: Various at the moment
My comment about any good XL spreadsheet was a tongue in cheek comment !!
You are right about AIROPS being cumbersome though. There's nothing straight forward about it.
One day someone will produce what we all seek and in one package, with a good user manual, good training and good support.
You are right about AIROPS being cumbersome though. There's nothing straight forward about it.
One day someone will produce what we all seek and in one package, with a good user manual, good training and good support.
Joined: Jan 2003
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From: Bristol
I think we are all a little quirky with how we calculate prices and control documents. The easy bit is the CAA controlled arena because it is uniform.
For me Airops does everything we want, but is bogged down by lots of stuff we dont want, and does not handle document flow well.
For quoting the best I have used for my requirements was flightquote2, it could be developed into something fantastic, but the owner was not interested in letting us partner on the extra modules.
Going back to the spreadsheet (that I rubbished out of hand.....sorry) I would like to see anyones copy of how you deal with lat / long lookup and the gret circle calculation.
Phil
For me Airops does everything we want, but is bogged down by lots of stuff we dont want, and does not handle document flow well.
For quoting the best I have used for my requirements was flightquote2, it could be developed into something fantastic, but the owner was not interested in letting us partner on the extra modules.
Going back to the spreadsheet (that I rubbished out of hand.....sorry) I would like to see anyones copy of how you deal with lat / long lookup and the gret circle calculation.
Phil
but that's not to say it's no good. If it works, it would be great to have it all under one roof !! Shame it won't file the FPL 
Joined: Jan 2003
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From: Bristol
I spent about an hour yesterday playing with it on a remote copy....pretty bloody impressive. Has some nice features and the quality of documentation is very good. I really like the to-do list stuff which gives good quality flow on the non-AOC type ops (handling requests, crew briefs, catering orders blah blah)
It does have stored routes and gives the option of great circle or stored routes for pricing.
Phil
It does have stored routes and gives the option of great circle or stored routes for pricing.
Phil
Joined: Mar 2005
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From: UK
I am getting Bizflight installed in the next few days for my ops department. It is very impressive and looks the part, user friendly and can do alot of work under one imput, only thing it won't do is keep your pilots legal on crew hours or give you warnings if your getting close to 100 hours per 28 days or legal days off. Still I can live with that.
Vince
Vince
Joined: Jan 2003
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From: Bristol
Depends what you want it to do, it does 99% of what I want it to do, and I get the impresson that Stefano would add whatever you needed in the fullness of time.
Crew hours is rarely if ever a problem for us,
Phil
Crew hours is rarely if ever a problem for us,
Phil
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 1,197
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From: Various at the moment
Phil
So what will you use to record your running totals etc ? I'm a little surprised that a package like this doesn't already have the facility to upload a FTL scheme into the database to suit the operators needs so as to maintain an accurate record of duty times etc.
So what will you use to record your running totals etc ? I'm a little surprised that a package like this doesn't already have the facility to upload a FTL scheme into the database to suit the operators needs so as to maintain an accurate record of duty times etc.
Joined: Jan 2003
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From: Bristol
I use an Ops bloke with a calculator, they are a little tempermental, but you get what you pay for.
Remember my interest is in qulity control of the Quoting and flight set-up.
For me the Ops type addon mullarky are just a bonus.
Phil
Remember my interest is in qulity control of the Quoting and flight set-up.
For me the Ops type addon mullarky are just a bonus.
Phil
