Managing Your Schedule

We have tried to make it as simple as possible for operators to promote their last minute availability and that is why we developed the feature called Takeoff Ready. Obviously, if you want to receive requests for trips that depart fairly soon, there isn't much time to market this!

When we say an aircraft is Takeoff Ready, we mean it should really be ready for take off - You have an available aircraft, probably you don't need (or already have) owner's approval and you have crew standing by. Buyers with urgent needs will use the Takeoff Ready filter in the search result to find the aircraft that are guaranteed available.

To note though, before we start digging deeper into this; the concept of Takeoff Ready is to highlight your urgent availability and to make it easier for buyers to know that the aircraft they find in the search result, when they filter on Takeoff Ready-aircraft only are actually - Takeoff ready. If your aircraft is available in the schedule it will still appear in the search result, but it wont be given this extra guarantee of readiness.

Please see the below steps to promote your aircraft as Takeoff Ready:

1. Go to the Schedule → Takeoff Read

2. Here you will see an overview of your fleet and the status of your aircraft for the next 96 hours (You can only promote your Takeoff Ready availability up until 96 hours). Hovering on any of the free time slots (white space) will mark the time slot blue. The Airport and the little aircraft symbol will mark the middle of that time slot to indicate how long it is. 

3. To mark it as Takeoff Ready, click on the slot when it is blue and a pop up window will appear (shown below). Apply the time frame which you wish to promote here and if you have High Time crew, you can check the box for that here as well. Click on the blue Promote button in the bottom of the box and your time slot have now been highlighted in the search result for anyone making a search for an urgent flight. 

4. Once you click Promote, the box will be closed and you will be taken back to the overview of your fleet in Takeoff ready. You will see your Takeoff ready slots have now taken another color. For those slots that also have High Time crew available there is an aircraft symbol with a circle around it.

5. For anyone making a search for a flight within the time frame and retrieves your aircraft, they will see your aircraft marked with a green plane symbol, indicating that you are available for take off! 

6. Also note that you can use the same feature for blocking an aircraft. Just select the Mark as unavailable option once you clicked on the time slot in the schedule:

Click here to promote your aircraft as Takeoff Ready

This article is intended to answer the question "How do I post an empty leg that I want to sell?".

Please see the step by step below:

1. Go to Schedule → Schedule

2. Find the aircraft in the list on the left side of the schedule. Click on the day you wish to add the empty leg on. 

3. Chose either Trip or Non-Trip activity. Either option will open a new window in edit mode that looks almost identical whether it is a “Trip” or a “Non-Trip Activity”, the only difference being that in the Trip Activity you can add a “Scheduled Trip” name, for instance the name of the client or internal reference number.

4. If you have chosen the Trip activity, you need to start by naming the activity. Activity type, chose Empty leg. The difference between an Empty leg and a Ferry leg is that the latter will not be marketed as a possible empty leg match or listed in our Empty legs section. The aircraft is only considered available but you will still have the visibility on when the ferry leg will take place. Add the start date of the Empty leg. If no end date is applied, we will automatically calculate the flight time bases on the performance profile we have for the aircraft. Add 0 passengers and click save. Your Empty leg is now marketed! 

This article is an explanation of how to create a new schedule activity type or change an activity type mapping in Avinode for your integrated schedule

For manually updated schedule

To be able to add a new schedule activity to your Avinode schedule, you need to create an Activity Type first. You can create an Activity Type from scratch by clicking Add on the Schedule - Activity Types page in Avinode, see below. 

1. Type in a name of your activity type.  

2. Select the Avinode Equivalent from the drop down list. (You can read more about each equivalent type below)  

3. Pick a color with the color picker or provide a HEX code. It will automatically populate the Display Color field with the color code.

4. If you have more than one activity type mapped to the same Avinode equivalent, you can select which one of them should be the default one, by ticking the Default Type checkbox. 

5. Click Save.

For integrated schedule

When sending schedule data from your Flight Management Software to Avinode, you will need to map the activity type names in your system to the equivalent in Avinode. This is how the search engine will know how to interpret your schedule data correctly, and know when your aircraft is actually available or occupied.
The first time your schedule data is sent to Avinode, all activities will by default be interpreted as Occupied. Therefor it's important to change the default mapping to what they really mean in your system. See the section below to find all Avinode equivalents explained. 

Avinode Equivalents explained

The following is a description of the different Avinode Equivalents, and how they are interpreted.

Empty Leg Availability

Activities with this type will be considered available in Aircraft Search. They will also be posted in Empty Leg Search.

Ferry Availability

Activities with this type will be considered available in Aircraft Search. The activity will not be marketed as an empty leg.

Flight Occupied

Activities with this type will be considered occupied in Aircraft Search. This activity type should be used for all PAX flight activities e.g. Part 135 or Part 91 operations.

Occupied

During an activity of this type the aircraft will be considered occupied. This option should be used for all non-flight occupancy (e.g maintenance).

Onground Availability

During an activity of this type the aircraft will be considered available. This option can be used to indicate transient (away from home base) availability. The search algorithm will price the aircraft from the indicated airport, rather than home base. Note that sending activities of this type is not required.

Option Availability

This is an “information only” type. Activities mapped to this type will be shown in the Schedule for the aircraft, but does in no way effect the position of the aircraft, nor does it affect the availability of the aircraft. This can be used for non-confirmed trips etc.

If you only have the option to add "Daily notes" it means you have set your aircraft schedule to "Integration" mode. Unfortunately you cannot edit the schedule manually when you have your aircraft on an automatic integrated schedule. If you need to make changes to the schedule you need to post them in your scheduling software and the changes will be reflected in Avinode after that.

Reach out to support@avinode.com if you have any schedule issues that you can't seem to solve.

If the Operator wants to block off the aircraft availability for a maintenance event, we recommend adding an event the Fleet Management system to block off this availability.  

Step 1: Add the MX event in your Fleet Management system. 

Please note you will need to add a schedule event that pushes over to Avinode. For example, adding an internal OTHER in your Fleet Management system does not mean this will push over to Avinode.  In most instances the Operator needs to select an occupied event to push to Avinode correctly. 

Step 2: Check this information pushed over to Avinode. The operator can view if the update was successful by going to Avinode and selecting the Schedule tab.   

Please note how quickly the information pushes over depends on your Fleet Management system. Some systems send us the data immediately.. some take 2-24 hours.  Please keep checking the Avinode Schedule tab. 

A common setup for Operators is to connect their schedule availability to Avinode via their Fleet Management system. Please see below a few companies that have a integration with Avinode:

• Schedaero
• FOS
• LEON

If the Operator wants to update the location for their aircraft for a specific time frame the best way to market this availability is by adding a trip in your Fleet Management system. For example, if the aircraft is on a 91 Trip to TEB on Monday and then coming back to OPF on Friday the operator needs to add the trip and this will push to Avinode. 

Step 1: Add a trip in your Fleet Management system moving the aircraft to the transient location. 

Step 2: Check this information pushed over to Avinode. The operator can view if the update was successful by going to Avinode and selecting the Schedule tab.   

Please note how quickly the information pushes over depends on your Fleet Management system. Some systems send us the data immediately.. some take 2-24 hours.  Please keep checking the Avinode Schedule tab. 

Step 3: Run sample searches during time frame of transient location. 

Please note: This article applies to manual schedules. If you have a schedule integration between Avinode and your FMS system please create flight activities via your FMS.

If you have a manual schedule follow the steps below to create a new flight activity:

When you go to the Schedule → Schedule tab in Avinode, you will get the below.

Create a Schedule Activity

All editing is done by left-clicking on the day and aircraft you wish to edit.
To create a new trip or activity, select the right aircraft and date, click New... and choose one of the available options.

Either option will open a new window in edit mode that looks almost identical whether it is a Trip or a Non-Trip Activity, the only difference being that in the Trip Activity you can add a “Scheduled Trip” name, for instance, the name of the client or internal reference number.

• Scheduled Trip: Give the trip a display name. This can only be seen internally by your organization.

• Aircraft: The aircraft is selected based on your choice from the overview. If you want to change the aircraft, please use the drop-down menu.

• Activity Type: Choose the appropriate activity from the drop-down. These activity types displayed in the image are the default selection, but you can add more or edit the existing ones. Choosing the Activity type Empty leg will automatically market your empty leg in the Avinode search. Read more about how to create a new Activity Type here.

• Activity Start Date/Time: Start date is based on your choice from the Calendar View. To change the date: write the date directly into the date field or click on the calendar view on the right.

• From & To: The departure and arrival airport of your trip.

• Activity End Date/Time: You can leave blank in this case the system will calculate the end time and date for you once you hit the “Enter” key. Or you can put the end time manually.

• Passengers: Enter the number of passengers (“0” in the case of a “Maintenance”, “Empty Leg” or “Ferry” activity).

If you want to add an additional leg in the same Trip (either below or above), you can use the “Add line” buttons located to the right.

Now go try it!