A sit down with Stewart, a veteran trip planner for ForeFlight Trip Support

ForeFlight unveiled its pioneering Trip Support service in May 2024, a game-changing move for the business aviation industry. This innovative approach to a service that seamlessly melds the power of ForeFlight's integrated product suite with the global expertise of Jeppesen International Trip Planning Service (ITPS).

Imagine a world where flight planning complex trips no longer requires navigating a labyrinth of separate systems and endless phone calls. ForeFlight Trip Support makes this a reality by:

• Leveraging Jeppesen's vast network of region-specific trip-planning specialists
• Providing hassle-free service through established relationships with local vendors and authorities
• Integrating directly with your ForeFlight Dispatch and ForeFlight Mobile
• Offering real-time updates on flight plans and booked services within customers' accounts

This powerful combination eliminates the need for status update calls, streamlines operations, and saves pilots and trip planners valuable time. Welcome to the future of flight planning – where efficiency meets expertise.

This is the second blog in our “Meet the Planner” series, where we sit down with seasoned trip planning professionals at ForeFlight Trip Support. In this Q&A session, you’ll get to know Stewart, one of our experienced international trip planners with over 20 years in the aviation industry, including 14 years planning trips for Jeppesen. His extensive knowledge of navigating the complexities of global business aviation has made him a trusted expert, leading one of the teams of planners coordinating trips for our customers.

Q&A

Question: What’s your name, and what do you do at Jeppesen?

Answer: Stewart Whitaker, I'm one of the group leads for International Trip Planning at Jeppesen and have been involved in it for over 14 years.

Question: Tell us about your experience. What did you do before joining the international trip planning team at Jeppesen?

Answer: Before Jeppesen, I worked as an operation duty manager in airline operations for 12 years. I've been in aviation for over 20 years, approaching 25 years, mainly in flight operations. 

‍Question: What initially brought you to Jeppesen?

Answer: I had heard of Jeppesen and saw they were looking for someone to join the trip-planning team. With my experience, it was an excellent opportunity to stay in aviation and apply the expertise I gained at the airline. 

Question: What is your role specifically responsible for?

Answer: I oversee a team of 10 trip planners on a shift basis. I help guide them and distribute the workload accordingly. I also plan trips myself and take the more complicated requests sometimes. But primarily, it's to oversee the team to ensure things run smoothly and efficiently across the board. Occasionally, I coordinate with multiple offices worldwide, such as the US, Dubai, UK, and Poland offices, just to name a few. So, to get that sort of coordination daily can be tricky. We're also a 24/7 operation.

Question: What does a typical day for you look like?

Answer: Often, a typical day is very busy. We receive multiple requests from multiple operators across the board, some business aviation and military customers, and a few airline operators mixed in. Requests for services vary across the spectrum, too. A request could be for one permit or multiple trips across multiple sectors. We also see a lot of handling requests, fuel requests, and general flight planning of complex trips. Some of our customers want us to plan just some parts of a trip, while others want the whole package, from trip inception to completion.

Question: Do you work with customers worldwide or only in one region?

Answer: All over the world, any client anywhere in the world.

Question: What do you like most about trip planning?

Answer: I like the challenge and the satisfaction we get from helping the customer out of a pickle. If they're in trouble at a location, say they need to divert for weather or that sort of thing. Coordinating last-minute services can be challenging, but when they pick up the phone, they say, “We need an urgent permit here for tomorrow. Can you help us?” When you get the permit for the customer, the gratitude you get from them gives you the biggest satisfaction.

Question: What is the most challenging aspect of your position?

Answer: In my specific role, the most challenging task is coordinating the diverse customers and requests we get across the board. I also have to ensure a balance of requests among the team so there's not an overload on one planner. As I mentioned, it's a balancing act and sometimes tricky.

Question: Is there a story you could share about us? Not about a specific customer but a uniquely challenging situation.

Answer: We needed a last-minute permit for a very high-profile client. We managed to deliver it, and we received gratitude from the customer at the end of the trip. It's the last minute, the urgent stuff that is the most challenging but also most rewarding because that's where you get kudos from the customer saying, “Well done. You've helped us out of a hole here.” Our customers are generally thrilled with all our services, but it’s those urgent or challenging requests when they are in a pinch that the appreciation and satisfaction come through. Most often, it's related to diversions or last-minute trip changes. If they divert to an airport they're unfamiliar with, we've got the expertise there, handling-wise, to make it a painless event.

Question: What do you enjoy the most, personally?

Answer: Personally, I like flight planning; I've been doing it for close to 25 years. I’ve enjoyed learning and using the new tools, such as ForeFlight Dispatch, which makes our job easier. I like how it runs multiple plans differently to find the most efficient option. I enjoy finding better, more efficient ways to plan flights.

Question: What do you make of what we're doing with ForeFlight specifically?

Answer: With ForeFlight, using the Dispatch tool, it's speed. So with our job, time is precious in the work we do. Getting that speed, specifically for flight packaging, is key. And we've noticed a big difference. Instead, it used to take us 30 minutes to package a flight plan together. Now, a click of a button is all it takes to package things up; it's that quick. You need to be fast when a pilot calls up, “I need a quick flight plan to go from A to B. How quickly can you get this planned?” Before, it was at least half an hour. Whereas now, it is 5, maybe 10 minutes at most.

Question: With the notion that the trip support business will grow, what will be challenging? 

Answer: The industry expects experts to handle their trips, so the challenge is going to be getting the expertise of the employees. Obviously, the more trips and customers we get, the more employees we need to manage the influx. Thankfully, we know how to train dispatchers, as we have an in-house Jeppesen Dispatcher Certification Course. Additionally, we can do more since we have the flight planning tools to free up more time in our day.

Question: Can you characterize the 10 folks you're managing and their experience?

Answer: They vary in their range of experience; some are highly experienced, and some are new to the business. What I do is find the balance between allocating the specific workload to specific planners. Highly experienced planners tend to take more complicated and complex trips, whereas the not-so-experienced start with one-off requests for a trip, such as handling. If a customer requires flight planning, permits, and handling, they need a higher-level, more experienced planner to work on the trip.

Question: Are most of the trip planners on your team more experienced? What's the average?

Answer: I would call roughly half of our planners highly experienced, meaning they have years of experience. I can't really pinpoint the exact number. Some planners have 10 to 15 years of experience, and we have some with 2 to 3. Across the board, most are experienced and have done trip-planning work before joining the team.

Question: What do you think makes our trip support experience and service different from the other providers in the industry?

Answer: The quality of our work and expertise make us stand out from the others. I would also add that the tools we use to plan flights and the integrations with ForeFlight Dispatch and ForeFlight Mobile give us an additional advantage going forward.

Question: Have you had customers transition from the other providers?

Answer: I can give you an example. We’ve had customers that were not so pleased with our service. They left and went to another provider. Two months later, they'd come back. We asked, “why did you leave and come back?” The customer stated, “The other guys are not as good as you.” So even though they thought the grass was greener elsewhere, it wasn't. And that's happened to two or three customers that I can remember.

Question: What are you most looking forward to?

Answer: As we grow in both the team and the tools we use, that combination of expertise and experience, plus our new capabilities with the ForeFlight product suite, allows us to plan flights and book services directly into the customers' Dispatch and Mobile accounts.

Combining Jeppesen's decades of expertise with ForeFlight's cutting-edge technology, this service offers a seamless, efficient, and reliable solution for global business aviation operations.

The integration of seasoned professionals like Stewart, with their deep understanding of regional intricacies and strong industry relationships, ensures that ForeFlight Trip Support can easily handle even the most complex flights. This human touch, coupled with ForeFlight's powerful integrated product suite, creates an ecosystem that sets a new standard in the industry.

For pilots, flight planners, and operators, ForeFlight Trip Support means more than just convenience—it represents peace of mind. Knowing that every detail of their trips is handled by experts who understand the challenges and nuances of global aviation allows them to focus on what matters most: safe and efficient flight operations.

Services like ForeFlight Trip Support play an increasingly crucial role in streamlining operations and enhancing safety. By bridging the gap between traditional expertise and modern technology, ForeFlight is not just meeting the current needs of the aviation community—it's paving the way for the future of flight planning and collaboration.

Whether planning a single flight or managing a fleet of aircraft traversing the globe, ForeFlight Trip Support stands ready to elevate your trip planning. With professionals like Stewart at the helm, supported by robust technology, everywhere is in reach of your operations.

In our next conversation, we’ll hear from Bryan Miller, a 20-year trip planning veteran who manages the International Trip Planning team at Jeppesen.