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Aviatize Club is the cherry on the cake to free up volunteers' time to fly more.
Flanders International Airport (EBKT) is located on the wind-swept plains near Kortrijk in West Flanders, Belgium. Built in 1916 to support the German Luftwaffe during the First World War, the airport today is mainly used as a business airport thanks to a thriving business center on the premises and its prime location in one of Belgium's key industrial areas. Some 120 aircraft call the airport home, and on average, over 75,000 passengers use the airport each year.
The Kortrijk Flying Club was established in 1969 as a glider and motor flying club but evolved into a motorized aircraft club with a steady 170 members today. The club has full use of the airport runway of 1,900 m x 45 m — a fantastic asset.
“We are among the Top 5 flying clubs in Belgium,” said Luc Jacques, President of Kortrijk Flying Club. “The club currently has six aircraft: three trainers (two Robin DR400 aircraft, a Diamond DA20) and three travel aircraft (one Diamond DA40, a Cessna 172 and a Grumman AA5).”
The aeroclub prides itself in its safety record and well-documented maintenance record. Maintenance is done by Gill Aviation, a certified CAMO organisation.
Kortrijk Flying Club's mission is to offer an opportunity to fly to everyone with a passion for aviation. “Our club is a community of aviators — people with a deep love for flying,” said Luc Jacques. “The amount of flying most of our members can accomplish each year is limited by their financial means. Democratic but realistic rental prices for our planes is hereby an important aspect of managing our club.”
Kortrijk Flying Club, like the majority of aeroclubs, is a not-for-profit organization with no staff — it depends on volunteers to manage the club and handle the accounts.
“We don't compromise on safety and maintenance.”Luc Jacques, President — Kortrijk Flying Club
The board believes in the added value of each member and appreciates when they spend spare time on the housekeeping of the club. Every tool that can help get it done more efficiently is welcome.
“Like many other clubs, we had a few members working in the ICT industry; they developed home-made software to book flights, do the invoicing — and that worked very well for many years,” said Luc Jacques. “But the IT developments evolve fast so we started scanning the market for software that would be able to free up our volunteers and at the same time, allow the club and all our members to enjoy the passion of flying to the fullest.”
The aeroclub opted initially for a software platform developed for Business Aviation, and then continued to look for an integrated platform designed for General Aviation.
“We compared offerings from Europe and the USA and ultimately decided on Aviatize. Their all-in-one platform in the cloud compares well with what we need and more, and their continuous support in the roll out is very much appreciated.”
Aviatize Club is the all-in-one solution for aeroclubs and small training organizations. Members can intuitively reserve aircraft, look up documents, manage transactions, follow training progress and interact with other pilots.
With Aviatize Club, the organization does not have to rely on volunteers to run the administration but can take part in the flying fun, knowing that everything is taken care of.
While flight bookings, administration and documentation control are standard features of Aviatize Club, the platform can be expanded with maintenance planning, training, flight safety and accounting features.
“Aviatize Club is now in use at Kortrijk Flying Club since the end of 2021. The current focus is on the flight reservation and invoicing solution — which work great,” said Luc Jacques. “The ROI here is not in immediate financial gain at this stage; we love however to see that our volunteers previously in charge of this part of the operation, today need considerably less time in admin tasks.”
“Aviatize Club gives us great flexibility in both the flight reservation and accounting modules. The next step will be the training module which is currently being evaluated by our instructors. Once they are familiar with the way the module works and slots in with the other parts of Aviatize Club — we will add another stepping stone to ensure that the Kortrijk Flying Club stays the most vibrant aviation community on EBKT.”
Volunteers previously in charge of bookings and invoicing now need considerably less time on admin tasks.
Great flexibility in flight reservation and accounting modules adapted to the club's needs.
Replaced home-made software with a single cloud-based platform for bookings, documents, and transactions.
Training module being evaluated by instructors as the next stepping stone for the club.
“We spend considerably less time on admin tasks.”Luc Jacques, President — Kortrijk Flying Club
Join Kortrijk Flying Club and aeroclubs across Europe who maximize flying and minimize admin with Aviatize.