Paul Touw aims to deliver the ease of online business-to-commerce seen in the hotel industry

Stellar Labs app aims to provide predictive pricing

After a year in development, Stellar Labs, based in Palo Alto, California, has launched its air charter market-place platform and app. The company has raised around $10 million, $7 million of which came from venture capital firms. “Start-up costs are low,” says ceo Paul Touw, “because developers are forgoing the large paychecks they would otherwise command in favour of equity.”

Stellar Labs is a completely digital marketplace for private aviation. The company is focused on refining a back-end network for flight operators, managing such things as automated scheduling, predictive pricing and route optimisation, that can yield fast search results and booking for users. Eventually such efforts could be used to deliver quick price quotes to consumers on apps.

Touw adds: “Technologically feasible or not, many industry veterans maintain that the complexity of the transactions and the sums involved deter charter customers from booking online. I fundamentally disagree with that view.”

Fred Powell Jr and Wendy Burton have joined the company's operator services team. Both bring considerable industry experience and long-standing relationships with Part 135 operators. Powell has developed flight operations management systems over a 20-year career and joins Stellar as vp of operator systems. Burton has over 15 years of industry experience and has served as chair for the NBAA California division of Schedulers and Dispatchers. She becomes director of operator relations and integration.

FlightApps, a full-service IT and application service provider, will support the integration of Stellar with operators' flight management systems, as well as augment the company's existing operator service offerings.