Will Provide Direct Access To Real-Time Pricing And Availability For The U.S. Private Jet Sector

At the NBAA Business Aviation and Conference in Florida this year (November 1-3) Stellar Labs, a Silicon Valley based tech company, is officially launching its charter Marketplace featuring its new iOS app and web booking portal that provides travelers with access to the only platform to offer real-time pricing, guaranteed availability, and hundreds of charter options in seconds.

“The private jet market is still largely offline, manual and prone to mistakes around availability and pricing,” said Stellar Chairman & CEO Paul Touw.“ 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 US is showing signs of growth.”

Stellar gives consumers hundreds of operator-branded charter options, guaranteed availability, and one-way pricing from a single online marketplace in seconds — essentially giving consumers the benefits of fractional programs and charter all-in-one and with no commitments. There are no upfront deposits, no membership fees, or ownership commitments as with fractional, membership, or card programs. Consumers can choose between fixed-priced, cabin-specific quotes with guaranteed availability, or hundreds of operator-branded quotes, directly from the operators’ 1 Source: WINGX ATC – analysis conducted on 21st October 2016 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 3-5 options in 24-48 hours with no visibility as to who is operating the aircraft,” said Mr. Touw. “Our technology makes the industry completely transparent, as everyone has grown to expect in commercial aviation.” Stellar creates a seamless, automated booking process for travelers through electronic payments. This includes the industry’s most complete high-value electronics payments network that supports credit cards, ApplePay, wire transfers, direct bank-account debit, and a funds on account facility (StellarPay) where customers can book, sign and pay from their phone or computer in seconds.

Stellar and Rockwell Collins recently announced the creation of a unified cloud-based platform that will include all of Stellar’s Revenue Management, Optimization, and Marketplace capabilities with the market leading functionality of ARINCDirect FOS (Flight Operations System). Recently described by Jet Linx President Jamie Walker as “the backbone for all major operators,” FOS is used by more than 500 operators – representing 6,000 aircraft – worldwide. At NBAA, Stellar and Rockwell Collins will demonstrate the first phase of this partnership, with FOS integrated into Stellar’s digital Marketplace and powered by Stellar’s solutions for revenue management, optimization, charter and collaboration into one easy-to-use system.

“The platform we are co-developing with Rockwell Collins gives charter operators all the tools they need to manage both commercial and flight operations with a more intuitive, cloud-based application that seamlessly connects to customers, partner operators, and service providers,” said Touw. He continued: “Over the next 18-24 months, we’ll be working hard to migrate the 500+ FOS operators to the next-generation FOS platform.”

(Source: Stellar news release)

FMI: www.stellar.aero