Navtech

Navtech is a Canadian company that specializes in airline operations software.^[1][2] They provide products which include solutions for flight planning, aircraft performance, aeronautical charts, crew planning,^[3][4] electronic flight bag and navigational data. Navtech is based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada with an additional office in Hersham, United Kingdom and several satellite offices worldwide.

History

In the mid-1980s Ray English, an Air Canada pilot, had the idea of using a computer system to calculate the benefits of tankering fuel. His concept expanded to include a computerized flight planning system. His wife, a self-taught software engineer, and a small staff developed this technology. They began working in their garage in a small town near Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Over the next few years, Navtech acquired several customers. They developed a hosted implementation of computerized flight planning which allowed customers to communicate remotely with Navtech computers to request and generate a flight plan. Navtech merged with Compuflight, a flight operations services provider based in Long Island, New York, in 1994 to expand its flight planning market share and to introduce runway analysis service to its customers.

Navtech further augmented its flight operations service portfolio in 1998 when it acquired the Weather Service Division of Global Weather Dynamics Inc. (GWDI) which was based in Monterey, California. In 1999, Navtech acquired Skyplan's UK division to accelerate its growth in the European market.

Over the next five years Navtech expanded its product portfolio to include crew planning with the acquisition of Airware Solutions (Preferential Bidding System) in 2001. A partnership was created with Parallel Integrated Applications Systems to offer airlines its Pairings Optimizer.

In 2005, Navtech purchased European Aeronautical Group (EAG) to form the present day Navtech.^[5][6]

In 2006, Navtech moved into the Accelerator Building at the University of Waterloo Research and Technology Park.^[7]

In 2015, Navtech was serving about 400 airline and aviation service customers globally, and employed approximately 230 people.

In 2016, NavTech was acquired by Airbus.^[8][9][10]

Products

Navtech Flight Plan, Navtech’s first product, allows airlines to manage the costs associated with flight operations, minimizing spending on fuel consumption, operating costs, and flight time. Navtech has developed two aircraft performance solutions: Navtech TODC, which provides customized take-off and landing performance calculations, and Navtech AODB, which provides airport data used during take-off and landing procedures.

Navtech's aeronautical charting products create aerodrome and enroute navigation charts as well as those used for helicopter operations. Navtech's crew planning software, the Preferential Bidding System builds both flying and reserve schedules with an add-on module for training schedules. Pairing Optimizer is a desktop application which produces crew pairings covering various scheduling periods.

Navtech's software creates and uses large aeronautical and navigational databases for flight management systems and flight simulators, as well as ground positioning systems, aircraft simulators, airspace modelling, and air traffic systems. Electronic flight bag software provides Navtech tools to pilots electronically on a laptop or tablet.^[11]

References