Happy 7th Birthday, AvPlan EFB

Today AvPlan EFB turns seven! On the 10th of August 2011 we had our first release approved by Apple and placed in the App Store.

Firstly I need to thank all our subscribers and supporters. We could not do this without your contribution, both as subscribers and for all your suggestions – so many of which we have joy implementing and this is what is making AvPlan EFB a world class app trusted by thousands of pilots every day.

Development of AvPlan EFB began in April 2010 after the announcement of the iPad. I saw this as an ideal platform to become a replacement for the kneeboard I used when flying (I have held a CPL and ME-IFR rating since the early 90’s). The vision I had was a device and software that I could do all my flight planning, then take this plan into the air and have it update automatically based on GPS. The software would combine all the maps, charts etc needed for flight, plus self updating weather, NOTAMs and alerting to assist you in conducting your flight.

We’ve come a long way on the journey to delivering on that vision.

We started small – it was being run by myself as a side project from my day job and I had only modest goals (it had to make enough money in the first year to pay the Airservices data licensing costs). Surprisingly we went through that goal in the first few months, and AvPlan EFB has grown steadily since then.

In 2013 AvPlan EFB became my full time focus and we added support for the USA and New Zealand. The app was always designed internally to cope with different geographies, but the first one was still a difficult undertaking. Early in 2014 we opened our first physical office, at Moorabbin Airport and our team started to grow. I now have a fantastic team around me that do an amazing job on product development, support and business development.

Late 2014 saw our first Android release and development of that product line is ongoing. AvPlan EFB for Android has taken some tacks and turns with us recently having to rewrite the mapping engine. It is in beta at the moment and a full release is a few months away.

In mid 2015 we opened our second office location at Centennial Airport in Denver, Colorado. From that location we perform all international marketing and business development operations with our partner organisations based in the US, Canada and Europe.

In late 2016 we acquired the assets of Command Software, and their flagship product Command Flight Planner. That provided us a windows desktop planning solution which we have now integrated with AvPlan EFB so you can wirelessly push a plan from your desktop to your mobile devices. It is a stunningly easy solution to implement and has been widely acclaimed by CFP and AvPlan EFB users.

The year just gone was our best year yet, seeing above average customer growth in all markets and significant uptake in the commercial and military sectors. This growth in our business is a testament to the hard work that the team do every day, and we look forward to continued success in the future.

Thank you

Bevan Anderson

CEO & Founder