At the beginning of the 21st century the relationship between aviation and information technology wasn’t exactly the stuff dreams were made of, so when Avinode co-founders Niklas Berg, Niclas Wennerholm, and Per Marthinsson had an idea for an online service geared towards the emerging Very Light Jet market, conditions were far from ideal. This prompted one professor at the Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship in Sweden, where the three students were pursuing a Masters degree, to suggest that the avid sailors should focus on boats instead.
Seeing a greater need for an infrastructure to track, market, and book private air charter, in general, the three persisted. Clearly, there was a missing piece in the puzzle. Operators lacked an effective method for marketing themselves to charter buyers. Sourcing charter was equally inefficient for brokers. In many cases it could take up to 24 hours to get credible information about availability. Avinode, a hybridization of the words “aviation” and “node,” was to become that missing piece and forge a link between charter brokers, making buying and selling charter simpler and more transparent than ever before.
With a business plan in place Niklas, Niclas, and Per traveled across Europe presenting the concept to operators and brokers. Needless to say, the idea was met with much enthusiasm. After developing the first set of powerful, online tools the trio launched Avinode in October of 2002. The new marketplace expanded quickly across Europe, growing rapidly to include eastern Russia and the Middle East. Across the sea in North America interest in Avinode began to grow as well, and demand for U.S. trips rose with it, leading Avinode to establish a subsidiary office in Miami, Florida in 2007.
Today we have significant market shares across 6 continents, new offices in North and South America, and through acquisitions we’ve expanded our portfolio to include aviation safety auditing and online operations management.
Looking back, it’s safe to say that we have revolutionized the way charter is sourced, and we plan to keep changing and developing the industry by creating new solutions for today’s problems and tomorrow’s challenges.
