Soft(ware) landing: company launches web-based airline ticket manager.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: THUNDER BAY

A Thunder Bay entrepreneur has invented an aviation management and tracking software that he hopes will take off in 2013.

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Paul Gibson, founder of Flightop.com, has a mobile airline ticket solution that's starting to gain traction with international startup air carriers.

His flagship product, Aviador (Spanish for aviator), offers a very popular ticket agent module that subscribers can sign up for to manage online sales.

When Gibson first offered the product on Google last August, the web queries were fast and furious.

"We had six guys straight away, but startup airlines are fickle beasts-many don't pan out. A couple went under so we're down to four."

His focus is on carriers in northern Canada, Alaska, South America and Africa; "these remote places where there's low infrastructure. The airports tend to be small and how do you check somebody in when there's no internet?"

Gibson's three-employee company makes money by charging a dollar for every ticket sold.

He hopes the popular ticket agent module is a selling piece for his other offerings and added features in passenger and crew management, cargo, and a flight planning tool.

"I don't think we'll expand beyond this. Selling maintenance is a tough job because it's not a revenue generator and doesn't increase sales."

After graduating from Confederation College, the Yorkshire, U.K. native was introduced to aviation-related software during a placement at Thunder Bay International Airport.

He later worked as a programmer and tech lead for various local web development shops before quitting to set up his own business.

The idea for Aviador was spawned from a passenger management solution he had built for NAC Air in 2003.

"I still had the code kicking around, so I thought, let's see what I can do with this."

Gibson ran it by a former colleague, Paul Smyk, now working as a Wasaya Airways pilot.

"He said, go to Google and get it ranked up the top two or three hits, and see if we can actually sell this as a service with a monthly fee offering access to the software rather than sell it for a licence."

Gibson views it as a cost-effective and efficient solution for small charter airlines selling 15 tickets a week, instead of going to the expense of buying a server or hiring an IT systems administrator.

An iPad-friendily version is now under development for passenger manifests--replacing paper print-outs--to allow pilots to, do weight calculations, a "constant baffle" for air carriers...