Charles Alcock is managing editor of the AIN Media Group, having rejoined the company in 2019. He has been an aviation journalist since 1986, and previously worked for AIN from 1990 to 2017, most recently as editor-in-chief. His main focus is on covering new aviation technology and business models, as well as international news.
Having been raised in the London area, Alcock studied at the University of Manchester in the UK and earned an honors degree in Politics and Modern History. He speaks English and French, and some German.

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Charles Alcock

Charlotte Bailey

If opportunities for business aviation growth in Europe remain fairly constrained, achieving greater efficiency has become an ever-more-compelling priority for aircraft operators and those who support them. Increasingly, the path to progress is being pursued through technology with a focus on breaking the industry’s deeply ingrained manual work processes and tapping automation to free up time for humans to apply the personal touch.
Stack Aero is part of the digitization trend, offering charter brokers and operators a Salesforce-powered Business Operations System that automates and streamlines their core workflows. The company believes business aviation service providers could significantly boost their competitiveness by ditching analog processes.
According to Stack Aero’s business development director, Cat Buchanan, there isn’t a moment to lose, or the industry risks being seen as antiquated by a new generation of clients. She told AIN she fears the European market could remain stunted by cost burdens, including taxes on private flights and SAF mandates.
Web Manuals, for example, believes that its document management system is saving charter operators and flight departments as much as 70% of the time they spend managing regulations and recordkeeping. The Swedish company helps its clients to manage their compliance libraries, helping them to keep on top of regulatory updates and ensure that flight manuals and maintenance documentation remain current.
According to COO Paul Sandström, Web Manuals’ automated approach is especially impactful for smaller operations where employees commonly shoulder multiple responsibilities that could result in them drowning in bureaucracy. Much of the time-savings benefits those responsible for editing and updating documents because the company’s AI-backed software maintains the required standard structure for elements such as revisions, footnotes, and headers.
Companies are now having to implement EASA’s new Part IS covering requirements for cybersecurity protections, and Web Manuals is helping on this front, too. According to Sandström, increased use of AI can reduce the burden of repetitive tasks, “if we get this right, but it needs the right quality assurance.”
<h2>Positive Mood</h2>
FL3XX is also trying to streamline the business aviation sector with its platform to help charter operators handle sales, flight dispatch, and the management of crew and aircraft maintenance. According to chairman and co-founder Paolo Sommariva, the industry’s mood is positive despite burdens including increased regulatory and tax pressure points.
Sommariva also sees the industry’s somewhat stubborn attachment to antiquated Excel spreadsheets and “Post-it” notes as an obstacle to progress. In his view, companies need to invest more in IT, but with a smaller revenue base than his airline clients, “budgets are just not large enough.”
To add value, FL3XX has worked hard to integrate other software tools with its platform. Apart from making sense of Europe’s regulatory maze, the company believes it can help operators avoid missing out on commercial opportunities.
“We can help charter operators filter key market factors such as big sporting events so that they are not left guessing what the best price [for a flight] should be,” he said. “We are making this much more of a science so that our clients have far more time to focus on customer relationships.”

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