This section contains a description of all of the eRES Airline Charter System applications that are available.

The differences between the eRES Charter, eRES Charter Extended and eRES Charter Extended Plus configurations are shown on the chart eRES Charter Pricing And Product Comparison.

The eRES Charter system consists of:

• The on-line eRES charter system.
• All system programming required by the eRES charter system.
• Dedicated servers located at Flight Data Management's location in Houston, Texas including connection to the Internet with unlimited utilization.
• A web site with on-line booking by customers, charter agents corporate customers and other airlines.
• Departure Control System.
• Operations Control applications.
• Charter Interlining based on IATA/ICAO/ATPCO standards
• Speed Mail and Packages.
• Automatic Credit Card clearing.
• Charter Tracking.
• Aircraft Load Instructions
• Charter Load And Un-Load Tracking using wireless hand held scanners.
• Weight and Balance.
• Crew tracking and scheduling application. The crew tracking program will be configured to the specifications of the airline's head pilot.
• Aircraft maintenance program that will track parts and aircraft required maintenance will be provided. The application will allow all maintenance rules, documentation, etc. to be maintained on-line for access by the airline's personnel. This application will be configured to the specification of the head mechanic of the airline.
• Interlining to other airlines that have eRES charter installed.
• Design and implementation an on-line reservation website to the airline's specifications. The airline's present website can be utilized if so desired.
• Any additional charter reports needed by the airline will be supplied at no cost.
• The on-line booking website is in American English. All languages are supported, at no cost, but the airline must provide a translation.
• An email application with unlimited user IDs with access from all client email systems. Also included is a state of the art Web Mail system.
• A tool that will allow you to view the traffic and traffic patterns of the access to your on-line booking system.

eRES Charter Overview

The diagram shows the major areas of your airline that eRES Charter supports and the interaction between the applications.

The relational SQL database is common to all applications installed at your airline. This means that all data can be used by all applications. Data is input only once, thereby eliminated input errors from multiple entries of the same data. Both productivity and accuracy are improved.

eRES Charter provides:

• Central, in-house, relational SQL database.
• Data is input only once.
• Real-time reporting of all business aspects.
• Direct availability of all data to external applications via Java JDBC, MS Windows ODBC and the IATA/ICAO standard TCN report for all ticket data.
• Every transaction made in the system is summarized and placed into a transaction log. You can view every transaction at any time in the same detail it was input into the system as. All transactions data is available to anyone with proper authority.

Internet Web Site For Your Charter Operation

eRES Charter can integrate into your existing on-line Internet web site or Flight Data Management will provide, to your specifications an on-line Internet web site that is capable of allowing charters to be booked directly from:

• Charter/Travel/Tour/Charter Agents
• Airline's agents
• Clients
• Other airlines

Summary

eRES Charter can automatically book your available charter aircraft, accept payment and allow the client to input the passenger list without intervention from your airline. Manual booking by your staff is provided as the base support.

The major points covered by eRES Charter are:

• Sophisticated functionality, easy of use and flexibility.
• Charter quote, invoicing and accounting system that integrates with all other Flight Data Management applications.
• Powerful planning and analysis tools.
• Automatically balances the daily charter sales with payments.
• Automatic reconciliation of income to earned revenue when the flight is flown.
• Powerful integrated tools to manage all aspect of the charter operations.
• Real time up-to-the-second reports.
• Tracking system tracks charters real time, for clients, agents and the airline.
• Automatic processing of credit/debit cards.
• Automatic charter rate quotes that are based on the following:
1. Aircraft Type
2. Aircraft Configuration
3. Charter Type
   • Private
   • Business
   • Party
   • Luxurious
4. Aircraft Relocation Charges
5. Base Charges
6. Dry/Wet Charter Rates
7. Country Based Charges
8. Minimum Charter Costs
9. Minimum Mileage Costs
10. Fuel Surcharges
11. Landing Fees
12. Over Flight Charges
13. Catering
14. Flight Attendant/ Cabin Server Services
15. Special requests
16. Overnite Charges
17. Waiting Time
18. International and Domestic Handling Fees
19. Taxes and Segment Fees
• Multiple aircraft chartering is supported under one itinerary and invoice.

eRES Charter Details

The following is the basic flow of booking a charter:

1. User inputs the booking data.
2. The booking system evaluates the request.
3. If the aircraft, crew and resources are availability for the requested time and date payment is requested.
4. If the aircraft, crew and resources are not availability on the requested time and date the user is given the next available time and date and the user is requested to select a different time and date.
5. Once the input data is correct the system evaluates the data to insure it is complete and correct. Data is then input into the database and passes control to the booking system.
6. The booking system determines if a full payment or a deposit has been received:
   • If full payment is received the system updates the client's record as paid and booked.
   • If a deposit was received the system automatically marks the client's record as delayed. If the booking is being made by the client the delayed period is automatically set to a period defined by the airline. If the booking is being made by an airline agent the delay period can be set by the airline agent.
   • Once full payment is received the system will mark the client's record as paid and booked.
   • If the delayed period is exhausted and no payment is received the client's record is marked deleted, the deposit money is updated as earned revenue and the system is updated.
   • If the booking process was completed successfully the user is provided with the ability to print the booking data. The booking data provides:
     1. Itinerary
     2. Payment data
     3. Complete charter rules
     4. Contract information
   • The booking data can also be faxed or sent to the client via the Internet.
   • Once full payment is received if the charter includes passengers the passenger list can be input into the system either by the client or the airline. If the charter contains cargo the cargo cannot be manifested until the cargo is delivered to either the airport or warehouse and it is weighed and labeled.

Select here to see large image

Input Booking Data

The booking data panel allows users to input all required booking data and submit their charter requests.

The aircraft that are quoted and displayed can either be your fleet, or a combination of yours and other charter operators.

The system automatically, using the input data, determines/calculates the following:

• Requested charter type.
• Type of charter, wet/dry
• Aircraft availability
• Airports by IATA/ICOA airport codes.
• Calculates estimated total weight of passengers and or cargo
• Operational statistics such as en-route time, ground time, and fuel burns.
• Currency to make quote in
• Distance between airports and the total route distance in:
  1. Nautical miles
  2. Statute Mile

Booking Confirmation

To review and edit or delete segments:

• You can easily add additional segments to the routing. Just select "Add" and you will be shown the "Input Segment Data" panel to allow you to input an additional segment. As many segments can be added as necessary.

• To delete a segment select the desired segment and then select "Delete".

• The home airport is automatically shown as the first airport in a new quote.

Charges

The airline has the option of producing client quotes automatically or to always, once the quote data is received, show a panel to the client that the airline has the charter information and will calculate the cost of the charter and contact the client with the final quote.

If the system is set up to do automatic quote generation when it has received a quote request the system will automatically calculate a quote based on the information in the system and the data supplied by the client.

When the system completes the quote the system will display the payment request panel to the client.

If all of the needed information is not received or available in the system the client will be shown a panel that the airline has the charter information and will calculate the cost of the charter and contact the client with the final quote.

This panel is used by the airline personnel that are assigned to manually do charter quotes.

• The system calculates quotes from the airline agents based on:

1. Flight time or total route distance in Nautical or Statute miles.

2. Aircraft relocation cost.

3. Short leg charges automatically, either as a surcharge or a minimum leg charge.

4. A minimum base charge can be set in the aircraft settings, which can be overridden if the user desires to do so.

5. A discount or mark-up percentage can be entered manually or is copied from the customer data.

• Any specific additional charges can be added to complete the quote. These can be typed in by the user or selected from a drop-down box.

• The amount for an additional charge can be positive or negative.

• The final quote amount can be adjusted to a desired amount.

• Taxes can be added to each item of the quote separately.

• Tax rates can be easily edited in the program settings. Unlimited different tax rates can be defined.

• Unlimited segment taxes and international arrival/departure taxes can be defined.

Once the airline agent completes the quote the system will send the payment request to the client.

Payment

The standard payment choices are:

• Credit/Debit Card
• Cash
• Check
• Invoice
• Western Union
• Money Transfer Agencies
• Bank Deposits
• Wire Transfers
• BSP
• ACH
• No Charge

The types of payment methods that your airline supports can be edited, added to or deleted to match what your airline supports.

Credit/Debit Card - All credit and debit cards are supported.

The following options are supported by the reservation system to clear credit/debit cards:

1. Credit/Debit card clearing is done by the reservation system automatically connecting to the airline's bank's credit authority and obtaining the authorization number and clearing the passenger's credit real time.
2. The credit/debit cards are automatically cleared with the credit authority and a authorization number obtained. At the end of the day a reconciliation batch is credited and sent to the credit authority to clear the batch of credit cards.
3. Credit/Debit cards are checked locally by the reservation system to determine if the credit/debit card number is a valid number, that the customer name is input and that the card's expiration date is in the future. The credit/debit cards are then cleared using a terminal supplied by the bank.
4. Credit/Debit Cards are automatically cleared by PayPal. PayPal puts the cleared credit card information into you PayPal account. When you want to move the money to your bank account you just tell PayPal and the money is transfers to your bank account. The advantage with PayPal is that it does not require a clearing house or merchant bank account.

Cash - The acceptance of cash can be limited to particular areas. Such as at approved travel agencies or approved corporate customers. A system is provided to track and account for cash transactions.

Checks - The acceptance of checks can be limited to particular areas within the airline. Such as at ticket agencies or airport booking office. A system is provided to account for check transactions.

Invoices - The acceptance of invoices can be limited to particular outside companies or agencies. Such as at corporate customers or travel/tour agencies. A system is provided to issue, track and account for invoiced itineraries.

Western Union - The reservation is booked as delayed and the person booking is given instructions on how to make payment at Western Union. Western Union, when payment is received, notifies the airline immediately. The itineraries status is immediately set to confirmed. Western Union deposits the payment into the airline's bank account directly.

Money Transfer Agencies - Support is provided to have the passengers make payment at money transfer agencies and to have the reservations system immediately update the passenger's charter as paid.

Bank Deposits - The system provides an application that allows a charter to be updated as paid when the money is confirmed as in the bank.

Wire Transfers - The system provides an application that allows a charter to be updated as paid when the money is confirmed as in the bank.

BSP - is provided to allow travel agents to pay for their charter reservations.

ACH - is provided to allow other airlines to pay for their charter reservations.

No Charge - At the decision of that airline the charter can be provided at no cost. An option is provided to charge taxes and charges or not to charge them.

Completion

At this point the aircraft charter is completed. The client or airline has defined the aircraft type, all flight details and the client has made a complete payment for the charter.

Add Passengers

Passengers are added to a charter flight by first selecting the charter being booked and then using the tool to add passengers. This tool is provided to the airline and to clients so that either can add passengers.

The airline provides the clients with a password and identification to only allow valid clients access to the applications.

The following panel displays the passengers that have been added to the flight.

Add Cargo

The above panel allows the airline personnel to add the cargo to the cargo manifest.

If the charter includes cargo and if the optional eRes cargo system is installed the system automatically supplies the cargo information to the cargo system for this charter. The airline will need to produce the load sheet and put the cargo on the aircraft.

For a complete description of the optional eRES cargo system please visit
http://www/fdminc.net/cargo/cargointro.html on the Internet.

Utilities

Following are some of the utilities provided by eRES Charter

Customers

This application allows you to input, edit or delete customer or client records.

Customers, the first time they book a charter, will be automatically placed in the database so that in the future their record is in place and does not have to be input again.

When you input a customer's data into the system using this tool a search is made of the database to determine if the customer already has a record. The system will not allow duplicate customer records.

Airports

The system has, preloaded, the description of all known airports. This tool allows you to edit or delete the airports in the database. It also allow the definition of airports not in the system.

FBOs

The system has, preloaded, the description of all known FBOs. This tool allows you to edit or delete the FBOs in the database. It also allow the definition of FBOs not in the system.

Common Support

Weight and Balance

The above load sheet panel is displayed. To print the report the "Print" function is selected.

Flight Following

The flight following is either input by the flight operations personnel or the gate agent. The flight following panel is shown below.

Security - Passenger and Baggage

eRES Charter supports:

• APIS - Advanced Passenger Information System
• Secure Flight - Passenger Information System
• CAPS - Computer Assisted Passenger Screening
• ECATS - Canadian Air Transportation Statistics
• Baggage Matching

APIS - Advanced Passenger Information System

APIS addresses passengers and crews traveling from a foreign country into the USA.

eRES Charter automatically determines if the flight is coming from a foreign country and entering the USA. For flights that meet this criteria eRES Charter begins capturing the needed information at passenger check-in. When all passengers have boarded eRES Charter automatically completes the required passenger manifest and sends it automatically to the USA Customs office where the passengers will enter the USA.

eRES Charter determines the flight crew from the weight and balance report and then captures the needed information from the crews personnel records to complete the required crew manifest. The crew manifest is then sent automatically to the USA Customs office where the crew will enter the USA.

Secure Flight - Passenger Information System

Secure Flight - a subset and replacement for APIS is supported.

CAPS - Computer Assisted Passenger Screening

CAPS addresses screening for suspect passengers and informing USA customs.

eRES Charter provides utilities that will allow the airline to input the screening criteria required by USA Customs.

When a passenger checks-in eRES Charter automatically compares the customer information to the customs supplied security criteria. If a passenger is determine to be suspect, eRES Charter will automatically print a new eTicket that indicates to Customs that this passenger has been determined suspect.

eRES Charter automatically fulfills the required number of passengers that Customs requires to be screened.

ECATS - Electronic Collection of Air Transportation Statistics

eRES Charter supports a joint government-industry initiative to reduce data reporting costs for airlines serving Canada and improve the timeliness of available air transportation statistics for policy decision-making purposes.

Baggage Matching

The purpose of baggage matching is to not allow baggage on an aircraft if the passenger who checked-in the baggage is not on the aircraft.

There are many ways baggage can be placed onto an aircraft and the passenger never boards the aircraft:

• Passenger checks-in but never boards
• Passenger checks-in but is denied boarding
• Passenger does not board connecting flight

eRES Charter tracks each passenger and if any passengers have not boarded or has left the aircraft eRES Charter will not produce a flight manifest until the passenger's baggage is removed from the aircraft.

Inventory Reporting

The inventory reports are available, to the appropriate personnel, on a real-time basis. The reports can be reviewed, printed or exported to external applications. The following represents a few of the reports we provide with the system. We will produce all of the necessary reports to allow you to run your business at no additional cost to you. The data contained in the following reports are based on the information as we understand it and will be refined to reflect what you actually need.

Operational Reports

Booked Inventory

The booked Inventory Report shows the bookings booked on a flight basis.

Flight Manifest

This is a report that shows the inventory boarded on a flight basis. It is provided to the aircraft's captain in a printed format and can be viewed, printed or exported by the personnel allowed to access this report.

Management Reports

Booking Report

The Booked Revenue report shows the number of reservations made for a specific date and time frame as input by the user.

Shown in this report are:

• Cost
• Taxes and Charges
• Number of Passengers or Cargo Description if Appropriate
• Payment Method and Amount Paid
• Customer Credit

A total summary is provided for each column including the total number of passengers/cargo weight booked.

Future Booking Report

The Gross Revenue Report is a report that is intended for planning and accounting purposes. It allows management to produce a report that shows for a specific period (time and date, from one minute to as long as desired) the booking details on every flight flown by your airline.

Accounting

The accounting system provides a processing module with the capability to automatically capture the sales transactions, retain the transactions and transfer the daily sales into the airline central accounting system for input free processing.

The revenue system provides the following capabilities:

• Automate billings including direct bills, credit cards.
• Revenue recovery of unreported sales.
• Variance processing with automatic creation of debit/credit and rejection memos.
• Extensive audit capabilities and trails are provided.
• Reduce itinerary pricing by system matching the tariff master and proration.
• Evaluate travel agency/charter broker effectiveness through sales analysis reports.

The accounting modules have extensive interfacing capability to methodically track, maintain, control and monitor revenue system management by customer number, location, status and agency pricing factors. All the methods and procedures required for a fully functional airline revenue system department are incorporated into these modules. In addition, full reporting capability assures accounting and budget projection accuracy, and marketing support. The customer number tracking establishes inventory control to on-line sales and serves as the source for the reports of unreported sales, sold bookings open, and sold bookings closed including variance capture, and the earned/unearned revenue position.

The accounting modules allow the data to be automatically exported into a spread sheet application. The spread sheet application can tailored or create new reports on a real time basis.

The following image shows a report on "Customer Credit" transactions"

The following shows the same report but the format was selected to export the report when it was executed.

The following shows the same report but displayed in a spread sheet. The spread sheet just imported the unchanged data. The steps between the export report above and the display in the spread sheet are:

1. Using the browser file function save the exported file using the "Save As Function" of the browser.
2. Import the saved file into your spread sheet.

Once the data is in your spread sheet there are no limitations to the reports and their format that can be produced by your accounting department.

We will meet with your accounting department and determine the needed functions and reports. We will provide the support and reports as required at no cost to

System Management Reports

• Passenger Boarded Report, For Airport Authorities, to pay airport fees
• Flight Report, automatic generation of FAA/Transport Canada require report
• Orphan Passenger Report, for re-scheduling situations

Accounting Reports

Provided Reports

• Gross Revenue
• Earned Revenue
• Booked Revenue
• Summary Report
• Customer Credit
• Customer Refund
• Credit Card History
• Travel Agency/Charter Broker Due
• Charter Invoicing
• Charters Booked
• Charter Gross Revenue
• Charter Earned Revenue
• Charter Unearned Revenue
• Corporate Booking
• Corporate Invoicing
• Cargo Invoicing
• Cargo Booked
• Cargo Gross Revenue
• Cargo Earned Revenue
• Cargo Unearned Revenue

Pre-Flight Validation

Functionally, in performing the pre-flight validation, the system uses the customer number to identify each transaction. When the charter is booked there is an extensive audit to validate accuracy of all input and system generated data.

The validation of the charter price is automatic as all charters are made in the centralized reservations system and the charter cost, tax, airport charges, and optional charges are all system generated using the flight price master table.

Passenger Boarded Validation

Once a boarding pass has been processed, the passenger transaction record is automatically validated to insure that the monetary value, transaction type, date of usage, and method of payment are all correct.

For processing an charter's components the pre-flight validated charter record and the actual sales record after either the passengers have boarded ("the boarding pass is lifted") or the cargo is loaded are used.

The actual sales record is used to validate the pricing and reporting of all charter sales. This includes passenger, baggage, upgrades, cargo or any other sales transaction.

Pre-Flight validation processing provides the source for the air traffic liability (unearned revenue) and once validated the transactions are placed in both the gross revenue and unearned revenue tables.

Boarded validation provides for the edit, pricing, reporting, and billing of all transactions. This audit includes refunds, exchanges, and re-bills. The validation processing system is the source for earned income and the transaction data is now moved from the unearned to the earned

Financial Responsibility

Movement of the financial responsibility from booking, counter and gate agents occurs automatically when Flight Operations indicates to the Flight Following function that the charter has taken off. At this time the revenue becomes earned and the accounting department has complete control of the charter's financial records. Flight Operations is still responsible to insure that the charter completes its schedule itinerary and to keep the flight following data current. All information is still available to the airline personnel but they are unable to modify the data after accounting is given control.

Daily Reconciliation

Daily Reconciliation is accomplished by accounting reviewing the unearned revenue report at the end of the day. If there are no entries in the unearned report the system is reconciled. If there any entries in this report accounting must manually reconcile them using the data made available by eRES Charter.

Networking

Access to the system functions can be connected to using the following methods:

When using the Internet's World Wide Web access can be made from anywhere in the World.

Local and remote terminals can be installed in less than 15 minuets.

The terminals are inexpensive Personal Computers with any Operating System installed that supports an Internet browser. This includes Microsoft Windows client or Linux.

All inexpensive terminals include the necessary programming. There is no additional programming to load onto the terminals other than what is shipped with them.

To install a remote terminal you connect the remote terminals to the Internet, select the reservations system with the browser and it is installed.

To install a local terminal plug the LAN cable into the Personal Computer, select the reservation system via the browser and it is installed.

There is no limit to the number of terminals you can connect to the reservation system.

We install, at no cost, a network/website traffic analyzation tool that will allow you to understand the people that are accessing your reservation system and what areas they are

Other Airlines

With the eRES Charter system the interface to the other airlines are via ARINC or Amadeus.

Credit Card Clearing

The connection to the credit authority to allow credit card clearing is via a secure Internet connection.

Cellphone and PAD (iPAD and others) Support

The eRES charter applications are accessible from cellphones and PADs (iPAD and others).

Passengers, travel/tour agents, corporate customers and your airline employees using a cellphone or PAD can access your eRES charter system from anywhere the world.

All functions of the eRES charter system are supported.

Clients can:

• Book Charters
• Check flight status
• View flight schedules
• Remotely check-in
• Cancel and re-book charters

Your airline can:

• Check in-passengers.

• Board passengers at the aircraft, eliminates the need for a Personal Computer.
• Flight crew can view work schedules.
• Flight crew can bid on work assignments.
• Flight operations can send today's schedule and work assignments to employees at anytime.
• Pilots can use the eRES charter internal email to pickup and send messages to anyone that has access to the charter system.
• Airline personnel has full access to all eRES charter functions from anywhere in the world via their cellphone or PAD.