Commsoft’s review of 2016, sees significant growth in global demand for OASES and strong start to 2017

8th March 2017

A world leader in aviation engineering and maintenance software, Commsoft is delighted to announce that it has been experiencing a significant growth in global demand for its industry-leading MRO IT system, OASES (Open Aviation Strategic Engineering System).

2016, saw the company complete eleven new contracts across the world, and five further contracts covering seven operations in seven countries have already been signed in the first two months of 2017.

The community of users controlled or managed in OASES now numbers over 120, in more than 50 different countries across six continents, covering over 50 different aircraft types. Notably in 2016, fleets of Sukhoi Super Jets and Bombardier CS-300s were added to this list.

In addition to extensive deployment in Europe, recent months have seen a growing customer footprint in Central Asia and across Africa.

A ‘best-of-breed’ system, OASES has been designed by engineers, for engineers. It provides a very high level of technical sophistication whilst also being intuitively user-friendly. Moreover, as a customer-led company, Commsoft is continually developing the system, liaising closely with its expanding client base to ensure that OASES is always meeting the requirements of every kind of operator, including national carriers, third party MROs, CAMOs, regional carriers, leasing companies, specialist roles operators, charter operators and rotable stockists.

Nick Godwin, Commsoft’s Managing Director, commented: “We’re delighted that more and more aviation businesses are coming to see the many benefits that OASES offers. It’s a testament not only to the system’s technical sophistication, ease of use, and cost-effectiveness but also to our commitment to listening to our customers in order to ensure that OASES continues to deliver precisely what they need. New mobility features, enhanced commercial and quotations management, maintenance costs planning and resources management features were all added in 2016.”

40th Anniversary

2016 also saw Commsoft officially celebrating the 40th anniversary of OASES at their annual OASES User Group held in London in March.

Founded as a software house in 1971, Communications Software (Airline Systems) Limited won its first airline contract in 1975 with industry innovator Laker Airways in the UK, leading to the launch of the predecessor to OASES the following year. Since then, Commsoft has been continually developing its MRO IT system, now called OASES – a process that has been shaped in large part by feedback from its User Group clients.

Co-founder and Chairman, Gary Pollak commented “When I founded the company with my late partner Dick Rawcliffe during a cultural period of ‘Boom and Bust’, it was our vision to create a professional organisation based on principles of honesty, integrity, quality, service and friendliness that would face the test of time. I am proud that we still hold these tenets true and recognised by our many loyal customers who have honoured us with their business, trust and friendship for these many years and those who have more recently joined the Commsoft family.”

Announced Market Wins

AviaSeven signed a contract for 10 concurrent users of OASES. Although based in Greece, AviaSeven is focused on the provision of EASA-level aircraft technical services across Africa, a continent in which Commsoft is seeing significant growing demand for its flagship MRO IT system.

In addition to announced customers Kenya Airways and Arik Air of Nigeria, OASES is also used extensively by a number of unannounced customers and CAMO operators supporting another seventeen African aviation operations.

Nordica (since renamed Regional Jet) chose OASES to support its start-up airline operation. Owned by the Government of Estonia, Nordica, recently rebranded from Nordic Aviation Group (NAG), to provide the country with scheduled flight connections. In November 2015, the airline began operations with flights on eight different routes from Tallinn – to Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Kiev, Trondheim and Vilnius.

The initial flights have been operated under contract to Nordica in wet lease or co-operative arrangements with other airlines, including BMI Regional and Adria Airways, both of which are OASES users. Nordica has since taken delivery of the first of its own aircraft, a Bombardier CRJ-700, and has used OASES to establish its own AOC and CAMO approvals with an expanding CRJ-700 and CRJ-900 fleet.

The Slovakia-based charter airline Go2Sky, chose OASES, to support both CAMO and other engineering activities on its current fleet of three Boeing 737-400s and a recently introduced Boeing 737-800NG. Based in Bratislava, at Milan Rastislav Stefanik airport, Go2Sky provides non-scheduled transportation of passengers, cargo and mail.

EU Wings a Verona-based MRO and aviation engineering services provider, selected Commsoft’s OASES to support EU Wings’ various aviation activities in Europe and Africa. EU Wing’s customers include airlines in Italy, Europe, D.R. Congo and Libya.

The deal was hard won, in the face of strong international competition from a number of other MRO IT suppliers. As well as their OASES licence covering several different engineering and maintenance modules, extra MRO options have also been included and they also requested enhanced quality and training management options for the future and are working closely with Commsoft to define their exact requirements as the contract progresses.

Orion Airways is Commsoft’s first customer in Cyprus and selected OASES to support a fleet of Boeing 737-300 and -800 aircraft. Orion Airways will be the first Cypriot carrier to offer low-cost charter and scheduled flights to major European destinations as well as Israel, providing links with the wider Middle East.

Becoming the second Ukrainian customer for OASES, Ukrainian Wings is now using OASES to

support its fleet, which currently consists of one Boeing 737-500 and one Boeing 737-300, for its airline ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance) operations.

La Compagnie represented Commsoft’s first direct customer in France and OASES supports La Compagnie’s operations for its current fleet of two Boeing 757-200s.

Commsoft signed the contract licensing the Paris-based airline for five concurrent users, starting immediately and following strong competition from other suppliers. La Compagnie’s OASES licence covers several engineering and maintenance modules and its OASES site is hosted on Commsoft’s private cloud and was implemented in only six weeks from contract signature.

OASES was chosen by Pionair, the Australian air charter and air freight specialists, to support three BAe 146-200 regional airliners it uses for its new airline freight operations. Pionair is Commsoft’s second active customer in Australia.

Marshall of Cambridge Aerospace Limited, part of the Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group, signed a new, extended contract to continue using OASES product for its growing CAMO activities.

An OASES user since 2008, Marshall plans to use the OASES system to support an on-going CAMO operation in the Middle East, and is working hard to secure further CAMO contracts and sees a potential for OASES to be used in support of these programmes.