Charter Scheduling

[Vne0]

In order to fly at the charter company I am with, I also have to do charter coordination part time and I am somewhat new at it, so I am looking for better more effective ways of laying out a scheduling board.
Does anyone have any examples of a well laid out charter scheduling board, whether it be a description of one, or an Excel file or anything, that incorporates City Pair, Dep Date, Return Date, Pax, Aircraft, Crew, Comments, etc.?
I did a search, but could not find anything on the subject, so I realize this may be an odd request.
I appreciate any suggestions.

 

[ratings:all]

there's software out there that'll do that for ya, prompt you for information, print out a manifest, give times, quote prices, etc.

try http://www.cta-fos.com

software would be worth the investment

 

[cvsfly]

If you are interested in pure scheduling, I think www.fltplan.com has a great scheduling tool that intergrates with the flight plan and filing and best of all is free. I had had looked into the cta-fos program awhile back and I believe it was really expensive. We use BART for quoting and scheduling and I haven't always been pleased with it especially considering the cost vs benefit. Was actually interested in a more reasonable program from Tom Sylvester (do a search). It seamed to fit the bill for our small one airplane operation, but the non-aviation secretary and bean counters that do our scheduling were nervous about switching their data and learning a new program that may not have all the bells and whistles. I got frustrated and gave up. So much for trying to save the company some money.

 

[PMVULB AvMgr]

CVSFly: You say CTA is really expensive. I say hogwash to that. You use BART, and are not satisfied with its performance. I say you're right ion target.

First off, I've introduced CTA into many flight departments in the past 4 years, just by explaining how well the system works for me. I run a part 91 operation, however the system absolutely shines when used in part 135 environments.

Keep in mind that if you use BART, and get wrong answers to typical questions asked of a software program, the potential for losses is extremely high. What if you were quoting a potential charter worth $150k, yet because BART gave wrong answers you lost the charter to a competing charter company. What do you say about the so called expensive CTA system now? BART has historically been very poor in answering simple ETE questions, especially when a change is made to a trip midstream (gee, nothing ever changes in corporate aviation, right). I have experienced this FIRST HAND, it's not something someone else told me.

And take a look at CTA's customer list, published on their web site. It consists of the who's who of charter companies in this country (Jet Avtn, TAG, Atlantic Aviation, Key Air, Automotive Air etc.) as well as the absolute cream of corporate operations (IBM, Chevrontexaco, Kodak, General Motors, Philip Morris, Lehman Brothers, Wrigley, UST, Pepsi etc).

Compare that to BART's customer list. Oh,wait, guess you can't do that, I don't see their list published on their website!

Can all of these operations be wrong? I don't think so. Sometimes money isn't everything, you have to look at the big picture. Besides, CTA is not that expensive compared to others.

Good luck.

 

[cvsfly]

You seem to have a vested interest in this company. Please enlighten me, but please don't use words like hogwash. I visted their web site a year ago (and today - no price list) and have misplaced the price list I thought I had. If the arguement is that it will pay for itself by landing that 150K charter, then its way out of our league. I dislike BART. I just want a quick, accurate, user friendly program for a small operator that does not cost thousands of dollars each year. I need to be able to convince the secretary that uses the program to switch. We don't loose charters because the quote doesn't match the actual trip $ for $. Its the way our company/secretary chooses to present and "sell" the trip over the phone and fax.

 

[PMVULB AvMgr]

If you are having trouble paying a few thousand dollars a year in support charges, then CTA is not for you. I by the way do not have a vested interest in the company, I just believe in recommending things that I find to be absolutely superior. Good luck in your search.