Leading international aviation fuel supplier Air BP has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with global flight planning business RocketRoute Ltd. The agreement was announced this week at NBAA2014 in Orlando.

The collaboration will provide customers with a more efficient approach to flight preparation as information about fuel purchasing will be available within the overall flight planning process. Under the terms of the LOI, Air BP will work closely with RocketRoute to integrate information from Air BP’s worldwide fuel network onto their system. As a result, end users like corporate pilots, flight departments and private pilots will be able to access all information relating to fuel uptake while formulating the overall flight plan. The aim of the collaboration is to increase efficiency, save time and improve the overall business aviation experience for the end user.

Julio Casas General Aviation Strategy Development Manager Air BP, David Wade VP of Air BP North America, Kurt Lyall, Co-Founder and Finance Director, RocketRoute Ted Glogovac Director of North America mark the ratification of the LOI at this year’s NBAA 2014.

“We recognise that flight planning can be a complicated and lengthy process for pilots, flight departments and operations teams and Air BP continues to be committed to providing solutions to make the aviator’s life easier,” said Norbert Kamp, Global Sales and Marketing Director, Air BP. “We are pleased to have been able to respond to clients’ needs and believe the integration with RocketRoute’s platform will add great value to the customer experience.”

This week’s announcement, which widens Air BP’s market reach, is in response to international customer research that took place over the past summer. The study looked at how customers interacted with fuel companies and explored means of enhancing the experience. BP’s research revealed that a large number of pilots and operation teams expressed a preference to work with a minimum amount of direct suppliers when organising flights. This new relationship provides a seamless means of managing a number of operational issues at a single source.

The first example of the integrated solution was showcased during NBAA at the Air BP booth and demonstrated how customers can establish which airports will accept the Air BP Sterling Card without having to leave the flight planning tool. Air BP supports over 600 locations worldwide with Sterling Card acceptance and the RocketRoute system will display all of these airports. As a cloud-based information system, pilots with a tablet, laptop or other connected device will be able to access the information wherever they are in the world.

This will be the first of a number of Air BP features to be integrated into the RocketRoute system.

RocketRoute adds eAPIS

In further news, RocketRoute has announced that eAPIS (Electronic Advance Passenger Information System) submission is the latest enhancement to its Flight Planning solution.

Users can now create and transmit the required APIS data directly to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and receive an acknowledgement via a secure connection.

Operators flying to or from the United States, are required to provide specific crew, passenger and flight information to CBP prior to all departures and arrivals to the U.S.

For International Trips, RocketRoute radically simplifies the APIS submission process by utilizing all of the preexisting aircraft data and flight data already used for flight planning. RocketRoute provides an efficient passenger and crew management function that ensures the minimum rekeying of personal details. Overall the process of preparing APIS and compiling the data is quick, easy and can even be prepared and submitted using a mobile phone or iPad.

“RocketRoute is all about simplicity and efficiency. We are pleased to add eAPIS to our features list and to do so in a way that we feel transforms how operators, ferry pilots and private pilots fly into and out of the U.S.” said Ted Glogovac, Director of North America.

Future enhancements will include functionality to compile and transmit APIS submissions for Mexico and the CARICOM countries. RocketRoute already allows users flying to or from Europe to submit the mandatory General Aviation Report (GAR) to the appropriate UK, Home Office authority.

The new eAPIS functionality is available online, as well as through RocketRoute’s iOS and Android apps. For the remainder of 2014, the feature is being offered to RocketRoute members at no additional cost.

More information at: www.rocketroute.com