Expenses management and hotel booking platform Down-Route now has more than 100 business aviation operators registered to use its technology. Down-Route is free to use and provides operators with a live expenses management mobile application for travelling crews, which can be managed from a company's finance department via a web portal. The app also provides a hotel booking facility offering rooms at a discounted rate.

“It has been very challenging but a very exciting year,” CEO Andy Hudson comments. “From concep-tion to delivery it has only been 15 months. The product is now on the market, we have got the operators using it for expenses management and we are getting hotel bookings, which is how we make our money. It is now progressing really well and companies are looking to integrate it into their existing systems. There is a shift happening and the big players are now looking at us.”

He is looking for the company to become a Trivago or Expedia for the industry. “We have a road map planned out but it could change. The social media side of the platform is something that we are very keen to push and this would feed directly into the applications of the software. But for now we are focusing on artificial intelligence, which is the way forward, and that will arrive either late this year or early next. You will be able to use your voice to search hotels and offers on the app, and it will text you back instantly with the results.”