News Portside Acquires Professional Flight Management (PFM)

Portside Acquires Professional Flight Management (PFM) to Expand Its Portfolio of Technology Solutions for Private, Business & Government Aviation

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.-- Today, Portside announced it has acquired Professional Flight Management (PFM), a leading scheduling and dispatch software platform for corporate flight departments. The combination of Portside and PFM will provide an enhanced suite of software solutions for private, business and government flight departments.

Portside’s mission is to bring modern technology to business aviation. Today, the industry relies on many disconnected systems and manual processes. From streamlining operator communication with aircraft owners through the Portside Owner Portal; to allocating the fleet and crew effectively with Optimizer; to managing the backend expense and billing processes with ExpensePulseTM, Portside continues to provide its customers with innovative solutions addressing their key pain points.

PFM’s mission is to provide a comprehensive set of scheduling, record keeping and reporting applications for corporate, private, and government flight departments. Founded by Bill Figures in 1983, originally born out of a Fortune 100 Company’s flight department, PFM has been led by Bill and Julie Figures, serving customers for almost 40 years. Today, PFM supports hundreds of flight departments, including many of the largest Fortune 500 corporate fleets in the world. Customers choose PFM because they value the Company’s innovative and resilient solutions, 24/7 customer support, and the ability to meet challenging needs faced by complex flight departments operating globally.

Together, Portside and PFM will continue development of private, business and government aviation technology, advance software solutions available to the industry, and accelerate the process to upgrade software for the increasingly mobile-first and cloud-based business aviation ecosystem. The combined company will have a sizable, fast-growing market opportunity and capabilities to drive significant value for customers and the industry.

“Portside’s competitive advantage is our ability to focus on the customer experience and deliver cutting-edge technologies,” said Alek Vernitsky, CEO of Portside. “With PFM, we now gain a deeper understanding of the needs and expectations for the corporate flight departments which will accelerate our vision to support the broader private, business and government aviation industry.”

Continue development of private, business and government aviation technology

Portside and PFM are deeply committed to pushing the industry forward by developing innovative tools. With Portside’s and PFM’s extensive product set, customers will be able to access a greater set of robust capabilities to support the safety, efficiency and collaboration needed to manage a well-run flight department.

Advance software solutions available to the industry

Operators are challenged with the ever-changing requirements imposed on their operation impacting their ability to scale effectively. Whether it be staffing constraints, asset management, regulation, communication tools or mobile accessibility, there are many processes that are currently managed with excel sheets and phone calls that can easily be solved with the right technology. With PFM, Portside takes another step forward in assembling and creating a comprehensive business and government aviation platform.

Accelerate the process to upgrade software

Upgrading complex legacy systems is no easy feat. With Portside’s expertise, PFM products will have a clear path to cloud-based, mobile-first architecture. This will benefit all stakeholders, as upgraded technology will allow operators to maintain a modern operation, while having the flexibility to operate in a resilient way that’s critical for government and corporate customers alike.

“Portside has a bold vision of building an end-to-end technology ecosystem for corporate flight departments and we have seen them continue to grow their product suite at a fast pace focused on serving the end user,” said Bill Figures, Founder of PFM. “We always prided ourselves in treating our customers as family and are confident that our customers will be in good hands and will get added value as we join Portside,” added Julie Figures.

About PFM

Professional Flight Management, Inc. (PFM) provides the most comprehensive set of scheduling, record keeping and reporting applications for corporate, private and government flight departments. Their products include Corporate Flight Scheduling & Dispatch, Record-Keeping, Request & Corporate Shuttle Systems, Crew Apps, Lobby Flight Status Board, among others which are integrated into many third-party providers so customers can use the vendors of their choice. PFM has expanded to work with over 200 private, corporate and government flight departments worldwide. PFM is headquartered in Bala Cynwyd, PA with team members located within the US. More information about PFM can be found at www.pfmsys.com

About Portside

Portside is developing a modern, cloud-based operating system for business and government aviation: a set of integrated solutions addressing major industry pain points. The Portside platform supports over 150 operators of business jets, helicopters, industrial and government fleets, as well as fractional jet ownership programs in over 30 countries. Portside is headquartered in San Francisco with team members across the US, Europe and Asia. Learn more about Portside at www.portside.aero

Media Contact: media@portside.co

Latest news

News Portside Acquires Avianis
Jul 06, 2023

Portside Acquires Licensing Rights for Avianis from Wheels Up

Industry-leading flight management system enhances Portside’s portfolio of technology solutions for global operators

SAN FRANCISCO – Portside, a leading innovator in technology and software solutions for business and government aviation, today announced it has reached an agreement with Wheels Up’s affiliate Avianis Systems, LLC, on a perpetual license to market, service and develop the Avianis flight management system. The agreement extends Portside’s suite of integrated, cloud-based software solutions for business aviation operators across the globe.

“We are excited to add Avianis to our industry-leading set of technology solutions,” said Alek Vernitsky, CEO and Co-founder of Portside. “As we continue to build a turn-key and scalable operating system for business aviation, Avianis brings important functionality, a best-in-class user experience and an outstanding support team to our overall value proposition, and we see enormous potential to continue to develop and enhance the platform.”

Under the terms of the deal, Portside will continue to serve Avianis’s existing customer base, market to prospective customers and develop new features for the platform, which is widely considered one of the premier flight management systems in the industry. Key members of the Avianis product and support teams will join Portside to serve customer needs and future development opportunities.

Wheels Up will retain the intellectual property associated with Avianis and will continue to maintain and develop its own internal instance of the platform as the FMS for its first-party fleet.

“This agreement is evidence of the great product the Avianis team has built as part of the Wheels Up family and the continued value it adds for some of the top operators around the world,” said Dave Godsman, Wheels Up Chief Digital Officer. “Avianis has become an integral part of Wheels Up’s platform, and we are pleased it will continue to serve as a core piece of our operations.”

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

About Portside

Portside is developing a modern, cloud-based operating system for business and government aviation: a set of integrated solutions addressing major industry pain points. The Portside platform supports over 800 operators of business jets, helicopters, industrial and government fleets, as well as fractional jet ownership programs in over 30 countries. Portside is headquartered in San Francisco with team members across the US, Europe and Asia. Learn more about Portside at www.portside.aero

About Wheels Up

Wheels Up is a leading provider of on-demand private aviation in the U.S. and one of the largest private aviation companies in the world. Wheels Up offers a complete global aviation solution with a large, modern and diverse fleet, backed by an uncompromising commitment to safety and service. Customers can access membership programs, charter, aircraft management services and whole aircraft sales — as well as unique commercial travel benefits through a strategic partnership with Delta Air Lines. The Wheels Up services brands also offer freight, safety & security solutions and managed services to individuals, industry, government and civil organizations.

Wheels Up is guided by the mission to connect flyers to private aircraft—and one another—and deliver exceptional, personalized experiences. Powered by a global private aviation marketplace connecting its base of more than 12,000 members and customers to a network of more than 1,500 safety-vetted and verified private aircraft, Wheels Up is widening the aperture of private travel for millions of consumers globally. With the Wheels Up mobile app, members and customers have the digital convenience to search, book and fly.

To learn more about Wheels Up, go to Wheelsup.com

Contacts –

Portside: media@portside.co

Wheels Up: press@wheelsup.com

News Portside Acquires Stellar's FOS Hosting
May 16, 2023

Portside expands offering for aircraft operators with acquisition of Stellar’s FOS Hosting business

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Portside, Inc. (portside.aero) has expanded its portfolio of business aviation software and service offerings by acquiring the FOS hosting business line from Stellar Labs, Inc. Charter and corporate aircraft operators using Collins Aerospace Flight Operations System (FOS) can now use Portside as their third-party FOS hosting provider. Portside will be building upon Stellar’s history of providing high-end, secure and reliable FOS hosting solutions along with white-glove service targeted towards complex flight operations worldwide.

“We are confident our hosting customers will enjoy the same reliability, security and service with Portside as they have for many years with Stellar. Stellar will now focus solely on its best-in-class charter pricing, quoting and lead management solutions that work with any flight management system,” said Vicki Nakata, CEO of Stellar.

“We look forward to meeting the needs of our new customers and exceeding their expectations. Over 700 operators and over 50% of the Fortune 500 flight departments trust Portside with their software needs, and we are looking forward to welcoming Stellar hosting customers to Portside.” said Alek Vernitsky, CEO of Portside.

Portside’s innovative software platform enables flight departments to leverage a range of products that streamline their operations. Some of Portside solutions include:

● Business Aviation Budgeting & Planning Dashboard

● Business Aviation Reporting & Analytics Platform

● Portside Owner Portal for online information sharing and communication between management companies and aircraft owners

● Portside Optimizer for efficient crew and aircraft positioning, reduction of empty legs, and revenue optimization by fractional and charter operators

● Portside ExpensePulse for automating customer billing and internal expense management, resulting in faster and more efficient month-end closing, customer billing and cash collection processes

● Portside Services for crew hotel and car bookings that are fully integrated into operators’ flight scheduling and accounting software

● BART and PFM flight operations systems that serve as a system of record for hundreds of corporate and charter operators

For more information about Portside, visit www.portside.aero.

About Stellar

Stellar is reimagining and revolutionizing business aviation by developing advanced technologies and innovative commercial solutions for operators, brokers and their customers. With a technology platform built from the ground up, Stellar drives transformative operational improvements in the business aviation sector, radically improving efficiency, profitability, and customer experience. Find out more at www.stellar.aero.

About Portside

Portside is a modern, cloud-based operating system for the global business aviation industry: a set of integrated software solutions addressing major industry pain points. The Portside platform supports over 700 business aircraft operators in over 30 countries. Some of their customers include Airshare, Jet Aviation, Priester and Wheels Up. Portside is headquartered in San Francisco with team members across the US, Europe and Asia. To learn more about Portside, visit portside.aero.

Media Contact: media@portside.co

News BART and Universal's Feasibility-IQ Integration
May 16, 2023

Universal Integrates Feasibility-IQ® Mission Planning App Inside Portside’s BART Scheduling System

Houston (May 11, 2023) – Universal Weather and Aviation, Inc. announced the integration of its leading mission planning and intelligence app, Feasibility-IQ, with the BART scheduling software system, a product of Portside, Inc. This integration provides BART users with easy access to real-time planning intelligence for their business aviation trips.

“We’re excited to work with Portside to seamlessly integrate our mission planning expertise with the BART scheduling system,” said Guido Groeschel, Executive Vice President, Digital Product Management, Universal. “This integration provides BART users quick access to the same trip feasibility intelligence used by Universal’s international mission planning experts, directly through BART’s user interface.”

As a result of the integration, BART users are able to transmit their trip details to Feasibility-IQ at the push of a button within the BART system, reducing manual inputs and streamlining the trip research and planning process. Users can instantly review detailed requirements for their missions and access advanced trip support intelligence.

Feasibility-IQ equips flight departments with comprehensive, vetted information on customs procedures, logistics, crew and passenger entry requirements, facilities, peak periods, location trends, and more for thousands of airports worldwide. It significantly improves the efficiency of flight departments by saving hours of research time per trip leg and equipping operators with intelligence previously only available through Universal Trip Support.

“Offering a broad range of integrations has always been a cornerstone of the BART product suite, and this important integration adds to the many tools and capabilities already included in the BART platform. said Alek Vernitsky, CEO of Portside. “We are excited to work with Universal to make feasibility assessments easier for our customers.”

BART users can learn more about this Feasibility-IQ and activating this integration by visiting https://www.universalweather.com/products-and-services/integrations/bart-integration/, or by speaking to their BART or Universal representatives.

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About Portside

Portside is a modern, cloud-based operating system for the global business aviation industry: a set of integrated software solutions addressing major industry pain points. The Portside platform supports over 700 business aircraft operators in over 30 countries. The BART product suite provides intuitive web-based scheduling and operations software for charter & corporate flight departments. Portside is headquartered in San Francisco with team members across the US, Europe and Asia. To learn more about Portside, visit www.portside.aero.

About Universal Weather and Aviation, Inc.

You’re counted on to make every trip a success, but you don’t have to do it alone. Reduce your operating risk and stress by accessing a global community of resources dedicated to helping you prepare for unforeseen events, navigate the ever-changing regulatory environment, and manage your stakeholders’ expectations. Keep your organization moving and ensure mission success with complete and customized trip management services – coordinated through your dedicated trip support team, or online and on your Apple® iPad® and iPhone® via uvGO. For more information, contact worldwide sales at +1 (800) 231-5600 ext. 3300 (North America) or +1 (713) 944-1622 ext. 3300 (Worldwide).