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Corporate History
Corporate History
Navtech, Inc. (Navtech-US) was originally incorporated in the State of New York in 1981 and then reincorporated in the State of Delaware in 1987.
Our head office is located at 295 Hagey Blvd. Suite 200, Waterloo, Ontario, canada N2L 6R5. Our common stock is publicly traded on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol “NAVH”.
We are a leading international provider of flight operations software for the commercial aviation industry, which we develop, market, and support. Our systems are designed to assist commercial passenger and cargo air carriers to increase safety, maximize efficiency, and reduce costs in their daily flight operations.
Our dispatch solutions provide advanced aeronautical charts, navigational data, and optimized flight paths and ensure compliance with complex national and international safety regulations. Our crew planning software builds and manages schedules that minimize costs and increase employee satisfaction and retention while complying with collective agreements and government regulations.
Our success in providing technology-based productivity solutions is rooted in four factors:
- Our skilled and experienced technical and flight operations workforce, who combine expert knowledge of both aviation and software development
- Our highly-regarded technical and operations support team, who provide customer service on a round-the-clock basis
- Our broad customer base, which consists of charter, cargo, and scheduled passenger carriers that operate in all geographic regions of the world, and includes some of the most successful small, medium, and large airlines
- Our reputation as an entrepreneurial organization capable of partnering with our customers and meeting their evolving needs, which allows them to effectively compete in their marketplace
Our objective is to be the premiere provider of a complete and integrated operations management system to the airlines in the world. To achieve this objective, our strategy consists of a concentrated effort to build on our premiere dispatch and crew planning product line, acquire the operations control, aircraft maintenance and ground operations components for our overall integrated operations management system, and enter into strategic partnerships to fill out the remainder of the specialty applications that a given client may require as part of their product suite.
The flight operations industry has undergone significant changes in recent years, with a number of trends emerging that have had a significant impact on the marketplace. These trends have caused convergence of flight operations management systems with respect to airspace management and the different functions required to efficiently manage airlines operations.
9/11, SARS, continuing conflicts in the Middle East, the resulting decline in travel, and increased fuel, security, labor, and insurance costs have had a dramatic effect on legacy markets, such as Europe and North America. The world-wide growth of low-cost airlines has put pressure on existing suppliers, while at the same time increasing market share by reaching an otherwise unavailable marketplace.
These factors are driving consolidation and rationalization by major network carriers, and are also leading to strategic investments by airlines in the areas of operational planning and control, revenue and network management, and customer loyalty. Alliances of major airlines and their associated regional carriers are creating virtual buying groups and substantial new competitors in market segments in which the individual airlines were weak, and many major airlines are outsourcing their non-core business activities as a means of reducing costs.
The industry is also seeing an increase in collaborative decision making (CDM) between the different airspace users as a way to improve capacity and efficiency, and reduce the estimated worldwide cost of $2 billion annually that results from inefficient air traffic management systems.
The effects of convergence and the development of hardware technology, operating systems, and wireless technology should continue the trend toward the creation of a real-time integrated operations control system where the air traffic control authorities, airline operations centers, and pilots all access the same information to make decisions and can seamlessly communicate and implement those decisions throughout their networks.
Several major U.S. carriers, including United Airlines, Northwest Airlines, and Delta Air Lines, as well as ATA Airlines, Aloha Airlines, Independence Air, and Mesaba Aviation, are currently operating under bankruptcy protection.
Since 2001, airlines have reduced their capital expenditures, which has resulted in an increased length of sales cycle and a reduction of the resources that prospective customers can apply to evaluating and improving internal systems. There have also been new entrants in most segments of the crew scheduling and dispatch markets. These factors have combined to lead to an intensification among vendors that has led to price declines in certain product-market segments.
All of these developments have led to a significant increase in interest for certain products and services that we offer. As well, the continuing deregulation of the airline industry in Asia (excluding China and Japan) is leading to a record number of new start-up airlines, a phenomenon similar to the previous North American and more recent European experiences.
Trends in the airline industry have created a market for firms capable of using technology to increase productivity and fully integrate operations management, while still interfacing well with legacy systems.
Navtech’s solutions focus on providing our customers with better tools and technology to enhance the efficiency and productivity of existing resources.
Our primary focus is on air carriers that operate modern aircraft with fleet sizes greater than 5 aircraft. Our primary geographical markets are North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region; these segments of the airline market are more progressive with respect to information technology, outsourcing and cost reduction. We currently have a broad customer base of over 200 airlines worldwide. No customer represented in excess of 10% of our total revenues for the last fiscal year.
Over the past three years, Navtech invested heavily in the development of our crew planning business line as part of our overall strategy. Our launch customer for crew products was JetBlue Airways, and subsequent to that successful partnership we have installed systems at over nine different operators, the most recent at Delta Air Lines.
We communicate with our customers regularly, through account managers and user group meetings. These communications help us to determine the latest requirements of airline operations departments, and allow us to focus the development of our products to better support our customers’ needs. Navtech is committed to continuing research and product development in partnership with our customers.
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