Tackling the last mile in the jet marketplace payment ecosystem with Paynode
BACKGROUND
Since 2002 Avinode has been known as an industry disruptor, revolutionizing the way air charter flights were sourced and booked. Avinode was the first company to move business aviation online, with its goal to give business aviation the technology it needed. It succeeded.
Today, Avinode is the world’s largest private jet marketplace, connecting brokers, operators and other third parties involved in the value chain of private jet usage. Their online marketplace is the preeminent in the world, leading the global private charter sourcing market.
Part of their success is that they listen to their customers, and don’t accept the status quo. So when they decided to act on customer feedback telling them that they were struggling in the buying and selling flow in their payment process, it was no surprise that Avinode would provide an innovative technology solution to solve payment problems for their customers – one that would completely change the way the aviation industry paid each other.
This solution was Paynode, incorporating a payments workflow into the existing sourcing flow to simplify the payment process.
Avinode Group: reducing stress and maximizing profit for its customers
- Avinode is the world’s leading sourcing platform for air charter. The marketplace simplifies finding aircraft, booking trips and marketing aircraft globally.
- Schedaero makes flight operations smoother for charter operators, flight departments and private aircraft owners.
- Paynode adds the reassurance of sending and receiving hassle-free payments, fully integrated in the rest of the charter workflow.
CHALLENGE
Payments were a challenging aspect of business aviation, and a significant headache for Avinode’s marketplace customers because of the high values of air charter payments – which average £25,000. Planes would not take off without a completed payment in their charter bank accounts. This prevented many of Avinode’s customers from being able to offer last-minute flights.
Customers were having to use a patchwork payment approach that involved using credit cards (which were expensive), or bank transfers (which were slow). The ideal payment situation would be one where payments were instant and secure.
SOLUTION
Avinode Group wanted to solve the slow, complicated and at times inaccurate way of making payments for their customers.
Their solution? To simplify customers’ payment process by incorporating a payments workflow into their existing sourcing flow. This was their Paynode platform. The ultimate goal was to change the entire way the industry pays each other – making it more transparent, faster and more cost-effective.
In 2020 Avinode sought out an experienced payments provider who could give them exactly what they needed to make Paynode more efficient and a success. This provider was Currencycloud.
Creating Paynode: just what their customers wanted
With Currencycloud embedded in Paynode, operators can transact with each other in real time, which is critical in the private jet industry where time and trust is everything. Participants can make payments, transfer funds, and pay out in one integrated payment platform.
Says Brenton Melville, Senior Payments Specialist, Avinode Group, “Most charter operators don’t want to run a £50 000 flight on the promise that the funds will arrive next week. They need a guarantee that payments will arrive before the flight. Currencycloud has enabled us to build a solution that speeds up this process for our customers.”
Paynode: simplifying cross-border payments
By integrating Currencycloud into the Paynode payment platform, Avinode has addressed a core need for its marketplace customers, who can now transfer funds much faster than before. Operators can collect payments quickly, which is critically important in the case of last-minute flights. The individually named sub accounts for each of Avinode’s merchants allows them to send or receive international payments with ease. Paynode’s users can enjoy the wholesale FX rates Currencycloud provides at the point of making their payments, saving them money on each transfer made and giving them a more streamlined payment experience.
