By Ben Forrest | October 31, 2016 Estimated reading time 3 minutes, 47 seconds.
Stellar Labs, a Silicon Valley-based tech company, has launched a new iOS app and web booking portal that provides travellers with access to real-time pricing, guaranteed availability and hundreds of options for aircraft charters.
“The private jet market is still largely offline, manual and prone to mistakes around availability and pricing,” said Stellar chairman and CEO Paul Touw in a news release. “With new technology, we aim to help drive transformative improvements in the sector around efficiency and profitability, and the overall customer experience.
“We are providing an end-to-end digital marketplace integrated with flight operations management just as the market in the U.S. is showing signs of growth.”
Stellar gives customers hundreds of operator-branded charter options, guaranteed availability and one-way pricing from a single online marketplace in seconds–essentially giving consumers benefits of fractional programs and charter, with no commitments.
There are no upfront costs, no membership fees or ownership commitments as with fractional membership or card programs, the company said.
Consumers can choose between fixed-priced, cabin-specific quotes with guaranteed availability, or hundreds of operator-branded quotes, directly from the operators’ available inventory.
Consumers can also access the marketplace by contacting any operator in the Stellar Alliance directly or through the operator’s own web-booking portal, as operators begin to implement Stellar’s automated web-booking functionality on their websites.
“Today, customers either have to join a program, or call a broker, and maybe get three to five options in 24 to 48 hours with no visibility as to who is operating the aircraft,” said Touw. “Our technology makes the industry completely transparent, as everyone has grown to expect in commercial aviation.”
Travellers use electronic payments for the booking process, including a payment network that supports credit cards, ApplePay, wire transfers, direct bank-account debit and a funds on account facility called StellarPay where customers can book, sign and pay from their phone or computer.
Rockwell Collins partnership
Stellar and Rockwell Collins have announced the creation of a unified cloud-based platform that will include all of Stellar’s revenue management, optimization and marketplace capabilities with the functionality of ARINCDirect flight operations system (FOS).
FOS is used by more than 500 operators–representing 6,000 aircraft worldwide, according to the release.
Stellar and Rockwell Collins will demonstrate the first phase of this partnership at the National Business Aviation Association Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) in Orlando, Fla.
“We’re excited about it,” said Brian Kruger, senior director for applications and services at Rockwell Collins, in a media conference at NBAA-BACE.
At the media conference, Touw described Rockwell Collins as the “backbone of business aviation,” adding the companies have a great partnership.
Searching for available charters at available pricing is almost impossible for the consumer, he added.
“It’s really an extremely difficult industry to get access by the general public.”
But these are problems technology may be able to solve.
“We think the online world is a big opportunity,” said Touw, adding he doesn’t believe the industry will remain manual.
“We’re excited to move business aviation online.”
Stellar is available now in the App Store, and the company plans to launch an Android version soon.
