Story ID: 368E
Down-Route Demos Flight Planning Integration
By: Ian Sheppard
Caption: Under new ownership, Down-Route says its expense management and reservation app can now be integrated into flight planning software systems.
Word Count: 274
Down-Route (Booth U130) is promoting the utility of its free-to-use mobile app, which facilitates expense management and hotel reservations for business aviation operators, particularly that users can integrate it into flight-planning software.

Fresh from receiving a new injection of growth capital, Down-Route says it has experienced “significant interest from various providers in recent months,” according to product manager Derek Donahue.

“What Down-Route has to offer is unique in the marketplace, and we can see huge mutual benefits from the application being integrated with other systems to give customers a truly holistic offering,” Donahue said. He noted the recent backing “has enabled the Down-Route system to become faster and smarter.”

Chief commercial officer Andy Hudson created the app in early 2016 and since then the company has established agreements that give operators access to discounted hotel room rates, while the team at home can gather expense information in real time.

At EBACE this year Hudson and Donahue, who recently joined the company from Satcom Direct, will be joined by the company’s new CEO, David Fulwider, and marketing manager, Jerry Saddington.

Down-Route noted the company is now poised for “an exciting period of growth” following its purchase by new investors, which is “a New York-based family office,” and the strengthening of its executive team.

As a result of the acquisition, Down-Route says it will have the resources to further develop its application, while Fulwider will be able to draw on his experience in “the strengthening of corporate structures and organizational management” to assist Down-Route in its expansion and development of the product.