Abstract:
An internet-based robust universal air taxi and charter system utilizes a centralized database and server to match trips with available aircraft in which the end user is presented with information about various available aircraft. To avoid out-of-date or erroneous information, all information is automatically inputted by aircraft vendors who use the central server for routine daily data entry for their businesses, with all vendors being continuously connected to the central server without the necessity of logging on to upload any additional data. Thus, the central server is used in the day-to-day business of the aircraft vendors. This provides automatically updated vendor files on a real-time basis to increase reliability and accuracy. In one embodiment chartering is accomplished by embedding specialized software tools at every travel agency, vendor and/or broker who subscribes. Also embedded are specialized software modules to give the local site a private label look and feel of the travel agency, broker or vendor by providing a user-defined “skin” for the brokering and chartering information.

Description:
FIELD OF INVENTION  
         [0001]    This invention relates to aircraft chartering and more particularly to a robust internet-based air taxi system.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    Typically when an individual wishes to engage a charter service, the individual will call, for instance, the general aviation terminal at the particular airport that he is closest to or perhaps their travel agent. Someone at the general aviation terminal will usually suggest a given charter operator and the individual is given the telephone number of the charter operator. The charter operator may indicate to the individual that the requested itinerary cannot be met because the aircraft involved is in repair. He may then suggest another operator or attempt to broker the flight himself, all leaving the customer in a large quandary as to whether or not he can get from one city to another, and also what the price and the availability of the aircraft is. He is not necessarily provided with any information relating to the aircraft itself, its accommodations and characteristics, which may be of interest to him, and as a result chartering has not been as widely utilized as it could be.  
           [0003]    On the other hand, customers are quite used to calling a cab company and having a cab dispatched to their location for carrying them to another location. What is therefore required is a convenient chartering system to make chartering as easy as calling for a cab. Moreover, the pitfalls of prior chartering systems such as, out-of-date or erroneous information are to be avoided.  
           [0004]    Moreover, at the present time, there are no commonly used communications between air taxi operations and their customers. Presently less than 50% of air taxi operators use email as a reliable means of communication. Less than 1% use instant messaging technology. As a result air taxi reservations systems, in a back office sense, are completely haphazard and are random in their use, integration and perceived value. The typical air charter company either has a complete custom-built software management system or a random collection of three to seven different applications fulfilling various functions for management. None are exclusively server side applications or are able to interface with one another effectively.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0005]    A system is provided as a turnkey solution for providing air chartering which includes a web presence in the reservation and booking process and to provide a web-connected global enterprise system for all back office functions for the air charter vendors. Because all vendors use the enterprise system, all information is automatically updated when a vendor uses the enterprise system to update records such as aircraft availability, condition, and specifications, as well as crew and mechanic availability.  
           [0006]    The system permits a large number of owners of aircraft to advertise the availability of their aircraft for charter flights so as to provide a virtual taxi service in which the vendors provide relevant information over the internet into a central server that functions as an airplane repository, which includes scheduling and maintenance fields as well as crew fields. The services from the central server are accessible over the internet by not only travel agents, but also by others who by virtue of providing a website having the look and feel of a more traditional travel agency can provide a customer with accurate information to enable the dispatch of aircraft to the designated location.  
           [0007]    The customer and/or agent can be selected along with a broker who in turn can access a number of vendors again through a website having the look and feel appropriate to the particular industry. Upon selection of an agent, and in turn a broker, followed by a vendor, a booking is confirmed through the airplane repository website. While the system does not necessarily require the customer&#39;s booking path to follow AGENCY, BROKER, and then VENDOR, it is designed in to enable as much participation as possible for existing industry participants, while being mindful of future pricing considerations.  
           [0008]    In order to fix a chartering contract, the airplane repository website is coupled to a Quoter which is in turn connected to an agent, a customer or a broker so as to provide information at the site and in a format which permits each of these individuals to have the latest updated information. Not only is the accuracy of the information assured through the use of a central server, each of the vendors by subscription utilizes the central server and its CPU, not only to update the particular information for the associated aircraft, but also as a computational agent for all of the vendor&#39;s business. Thus, any time a vendor wishes to change information relating to a particular aircraft for reasons other than charter availability, this information is automatically placed in the central server so as to assure the reliability of the information to the brokers, agents or customers of the system.  
           [0009]    For instance, a vendor&#39;s internal scheduler being processed by the central server, not only serves the vendor&#39;s personal needs, but also is immediately available to the remainder of the community to provide updated information. Thus, while the internal scheduler is visible to the particular vendor, this information is utilized to increase the accuracy of the information provided to the end users.  
           [0010]    That which is available on the server is provided through the Quoter so as to arrange all of the information in an easily accessible format that is presented in the so-called skin of the particular agent, broker or customer that the agent, broker or customer is used to seeing. The Quoter is based on great circle distances and functions to provide the user with a number of choices as well as rate plans or prices for each leg of the user&#39;s proposed trip. It will be appreciated that when an individual agent or broker builds his or her quote, the available airports are listed along with what fixed based operators are available for refueling as well as customer services such as car rentals, restaurants, recreational facilities and the like. The result is that within a matter of minutes a customer can arrange for a charter flight from one location to another without having to physically visit either the agent, or the broker, or the vendor. Moreover, the customer is provided with personalized information so that he or she can make an informed choice.  
           [0011]    It is therefore the purpose of the subject invention to provide this type of convenience to a customer so as to provide the customer with an alternative to crowded airports and commercial aviation hassles. The ability to provide a travel agent not only with a user-friendly screen, but also with information that is both complete and accurate is an advantage to facilitating a taxicab-like dispatch operation and thereby increases the number of charter flights booked.  
           [0012]    It will be appreciated that once a booking has been completed, notification is provided to all entities, the customer, agent, broker and vendor. Likewise when a vendor takes his airplane out of service for maintenance or otherwise, the aircraft is listed as unbookable and if a booking is attempted, the notification system will indicate the status of the aircraft. In one embodiment, if an airplane is out of commission, the booking engine simply goes to the next logical aircraft.  
           [0013]    In terms of aircraft maintenance, in one embodiment of the subject invention, the system provides the number of air miles or service cycles for the aircraft and automatically alerts the vendor to schedule maintenance requirements based on actual usage of the aircraft which is maintained by the booking system. Thus the booking system keeps track of aircraft usage.  
           [0014]    In a preferred embodiment, the booking engine itself generates a charter contract and transmits it to the agent and/or customer, with the system providing a standard booking contract which has been simplified for customer ease of use.  
           [0015]    The subject system also provides the users with a standard skin which is branded for each of the agents so that when their client comes to use the system, it appears as though the site belongs to the travel agent. The other reason for providing a customized skin is to make the agents perceive the system to be their system, with the system using the individual agents or terminology on the web page. This provides an individualized look and feel for all of the agents and brokers so that the actual booking engine is transparent to the user.  
           [0016]    The subject system thus provides a scaffold or uniformity for chartering operations not heretofore possible due to the individual contracts and chartering procedures used. Since the vendors themselves subscribe to the central server and use it for everyday business, the structure afforded by the central server imposes this uniformity.  
           [0017]    Thus the tools that are developed for use of the central server actually form the fabric of the lives of the vendors such that it is more convenient for the vendor to utilize this pre-established format and derive the benefits therefrom than to use a customized format, not necessarily understood by the system or any other broker&#39;s or agent&#39;s software.  
           [0018]    The system thus eliminates all of the communications overhead and wastage in communications when individual chartering companies or brokers seek in a disparate way to conduct business. The system results in a reporting system for reporting aircraft availability, maintenance, utilization, pricing and other things, and does so in a convenient, automatic fashion.  
           [0019]    Note, even though there are systems that purport to be a unifying charter brokering service, they are actually manually updated every morning by an individual telephoning a vendor or charter operator as to the status of all of his planes and their availability or non-availability. This causes numerous errors and unreliability. The prior systems also require a log-in on the part of the agent and/or vendor, each time the vendor seeks to use the system, with the log-ins generally being ignored or not used.  
           [0020]    The subject system, however, has an automatic login through the subscription service so that the vendor is constantly online with the server, thus eliminating the problem of log-ins.  
           [0021]    Another part of the subject invention is that the vendor is provided with maintenance schedules, which is a tool provided by the system which enables the vendor to be able to track crew, aircraft, keep track of required maintenance. While in the past software has been available to alert operators to required maintenance checks, these programs do not reside on a central server to which each of the vendors is connected.  
           [0022]    In one embodiment the quoting system is fed directly by the vendor&#39;s maintenance system. For instance, if a mechanic decides to ground an aircraft for a bad oil leak, this information is typed directly into his terminal, which is away from the reservations terminal, for instance. This remotely typed-in information precludes the aircraft from being booked through the booking system in a matter of seconds.  
           [0023]    In summary, an internet-based robust, accurate universal air taxi and charter system utilizes a centralized database and a server to match trips with available aircraft in which the end user is presented with information about various available aircraft. All information is automatically inputted by subscribers who use the central server for routine daily data entry for their businesses with all vendors being continuously connected to the central server without the necessity of logging on. Thus the central server runs the business of the aircraft vendors by having the aircraft vendors enter all their business data into the server. This provides completely updated vendor files on a realtime basis to increase reliability and accuracy.  
           [0024]    In one embodiment the aircraft chartering is accomplished by embedding specialized software tools at every travel agency and/or broker who subscribes. Also embedded are specialized software modules to give the local site the look and feel of the travel agency, broker or vendor by providing a user-defined “skin” for the brokering and chartering information. Specialized tools include a Travel Agency/Broker Quoter, an Aircraft Vendor Quoter, an Aircraft Vendor Scheduler; a Vendor Enterprise module to assist in running the Aircraft Vendor&#39;s business, a GDS Integration/Interface, FBO Point of Sale devices or Wireless PDAs and software to assist in the collection of a transaction fee for each trip.  
           [0025]    Rather than building one excessively large application, the subject system builds mini private label sites and uses information from the mini sites to develop the core application. Since data is generated during the day by a system integral to the user, there are no data interface issues as the data is already entered during the normal course of business of the vendor. Thus all data in the central server is based on a data pulled as new interfaces are built from a community of many participants, with the subject system with the subject system being a large and highly dynamic relational database that appears through localized and somewhat customized websites belonging to the respective members or customers of the relational database community, i.e., the subject system. In one embodiment, charter booking is automatically done via the Internet by the ultimate customer booking the charter. Note that the subject system is flexible so that route changes can be made in flight at times to optimize pricing for clients who have already started a trip.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0026]    These and other features of the subject invention will be better understood in connection will the Detailed Description in conjunction with the Drawings, of which:  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the system illustrating the utilization of a Quoter by an agent, client, broker and vendor, with the vendor utilizing the centralized server for backroom house keeping and general business tasks;  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic illustration of a screen shot viewable by a client, an agent, a broker, and or a vendor in which fields are provided to book a trip indicating the number of passengers and the trip type so as to receive a quote, also simultaneously presenting the types and qualifications of the aircraft to be chartered;  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of a screen shot of the fields entered by a vendor, with the data stored at the central server and utilized in the quoting system of FIG. 1;  
         [0030]    [0030]FIG. 4 is a flow chart diagram of the interface between the booking entity and the quoting system for the Quoter and the scheduling and management blocks of FIG. 1;  
         [0031]    [0031]FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic representation of the scheduling of a flight utilizing the subject Quoter and scheduling components in which a time line is displayed indicating the particular aircraft and the particular crew and mechanic schedule, also indicating the crew available as well as the mechanic available, and indicating a black out period for the aircraft in which the aircraft is unavailable either due to mechanical issues or crew issues or due to a previously scheduled flight;  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a tailored weighted preference system in which a customer is guided through the agent selection, broker selection and vendor selection so as to provide the customer with a weighted selection as to the vendor and aircraft; and,  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic illustration of a task load alerting system in which daily tasks are color coded as to the amount of activity for that particular day. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0034]    Referring to FIG. 1, a booking and scheduling system  10  includes a centralized server  12  which functions as the airplane repository into which is inputted scheduling and maintenance data as illustrated at  14  as well as vendor  16  information which includes, inter alia, all of the specifications of the aircraft, its availability from the vendor, the crew availability, and the availability of a mechanic, all of which are required in order to be able to quote a given trip:  
         [0035]    The quotation is generated by a Quoter  20  which is fed with airport data  22  and is coupled to server  12 .  
         [0036]    The Quoter has outputs which are coupled via the Internet to the selected agent here illustrated at  24 .  
         [0037]    Quoter  20  after having been provided with the particular trip, along with the available aircraft and other information provides this information either to the ultimate client here illustrated at  30  or to the client&#39;s agent here illustrated at  32  through a notification system  34  so that either the agent or the client may be apprised of the particulars of the trip and can authorize the booking of the trip in terms of the fixing of a contract back through agent  24  and through Quoter  20 . Upon the fixing of the contract or the booking, Quoter  20  provides a booking acknowledgement which is then passed through notification system  34  to either the agent or the client. Notification is also provided to the vendor  16  so that all parties to the transaction are provided with a detailed notification of the particular chartering contract.  
         [0038]    As will be seen, it is possible in the subject system for the clients themselves to book a trip as long as the client is pre-qualified. The more-likely scenario is that the client will go to a particular agent such as travel agent who will through a particular “skin”, here illustrated at  40  provide the client with information regarding a projected trip, with the skin referring to the look and feel of the arrangement of data which is presented both in terms of fields of information and in terms of presentation materials which lie along side it. The particular skins may be tailored to the particular agent to have the look and feel that the agent normally utilizes, due to the commonality of the fields utilized in the subject chartering system. Fields include for instance the departure and destination airports, the number of passengers, the type of trip, be it one way, two way or a multi leg trip, along with other information in a multi-media sense including for instance a picture of the aircraft, its interior, or even pictures relevant to the trip such as advertising and spots of local interest.  
         [0039]    All of this information is presented at the agent&#39;s terminal in the “skin” that the particular agent is currently using.  
         [0040]    If the agent is the one contacted by the client, then the client is directed to the particular agent through agent selector  24 , with the agent having a contractual relationship with the owner of the server in terms of a subscription.  
         [0041]    Once having selected the agent, the agent can in one instance select a particular broker as illustrated at  36 . The subject system in turn communicates with the selected broker  38  through the broker&#39;s skin here illustrated at  40 .  
         [0042]    The broker then must decide on a particular vendor, which is accomplished as illustrated at  42 , with the vendor selected communicated to Quoter  20 . The broker may select a single vendor or may select a group of vendors for purposes of quoting the particular trip.  
         [0043]    Note that the information from the Quoter is provided in whatever format the client, agent, broker or vendor selects by selecting a “skin” for the presentation of the information from the Quoter. The skin for direct use by a client is as illustrated by skin  44 , for the agent as illustrated by skin  46 , and for the vendor as illustrated by skin  48 .  
         [0044]    While the subject system will be described in terms of involvement of the client, agent, broker and vendor, it will be appreciated that the agents and brokers can be bypassed assuming that the client is sufficiently sophisticated and has sufficient credit for booking the trip. In one embodiment, the client can go directly to a vendor such as vendor  42 . Here he is provided with a display of information in the vendor&#39;s “skin”  51 , such that a client  43  can deal directly with vendor  42  as if vendor  42  were an agent or broker.  
         [0045]    Regardless of the number of entities involved in the booking transaction, notification system  34  notifies all the appropriate entities so that the same information resides at each entity.  
         [0046]    It will be appreciated that all of the entities have the exact same information. This improves on the reliability of the booking system and identifies for each of the entities any error which may have occurred which can quickly be corrected.  
         [0047]    It will also be appreciated that because the vendor utilizes server  12  for all of the vendor&#39;s business, all information provided by the vendor is updated in as real time as possible due to the fact that there is no lag between the vendor&#39;s specification of aircraft availability, crew availability and the like. This is because it is the central server which is in fact serving as the computation engine for the vendor in the vendor&#39;s daily business.  
         [0048]    As such it will be seen that the vendor also has a screen  50 , which is in one embodiment the internal scheduling display for the vendor.  
         [0049]    As part of the subject system, and referring now to FIG. 2, what is described is a screen shot of a particular skin for information which is presented either to the agent or by the agent to the client. The fields which are important are the departure location illustrated at field  52  and arrival location illustrated at field  54 , the number of passengers illustrated at field  56  and the type of trip desired illustrated at  58 .  
         [0050]    The type of trip may either be a one-way trip, a two-way trip, a multi-leg trip or may also require that the aircraft wait for the passenger and then return. These types of fields are common to the skins of all of the entities mentioned above.  
         [0051]    A trip request is initiated through the clicking on of the “get quote” button here illustrated at  60 . As can be seen from the screen shot there is a multi-media display in which client, agent or broker can have an instant listing and view of the various types of aircraft available along with a description of the particular aircraft.  
         [0052]    In the illustrated embodiment a Beach Barron  58  is illustrated as having a maximum speed of 169 knots, maximum range of 900 nautical miles and a maximum number of passengers of 4. The multi-media display also can display the interior, exterior or blueprint of the aircraft along with details, which is a narrative of the particular attributes of the particular aircraft. It will be appreciated that multi-media display is important in the selection process, both from the point of view of the client and from the point of view of either the agent or the broker. Information for this screen is provided by server  12  as updated by vendor  16 .  
         [0053]    Referring to FIG. 3, what is shown is the data entry format for vendor aircraft, in which field  62  is provided for the name or model of the plane, field  64  for the airspeed, a field  66  for enabling a plane to be quoted, as opposed to being merely shown in the gallery, and a field  68  corresponding to access level meaning the permitted personnel to use the plane. In terms of access level, its use means to view or edit the data for this particular plane. A field  70  is used to authorize showing the plane and its data in the gallery, whereas a field  72  relates to a virtual aircraft, which is an aircraft used for quoting purposes but does not represent the natural physical aircraft. This permits brokers to quote aircraft that may or may not be available without first identifying that they are available.  
         [0054]    Also included in the data entry format is a field  74  for indicating maximum range and a field  76  for indicating maximum trip length.  
         [0055]    The data entry format is very versatile in that pictures may be supplied or deleted at the discretion of the particular vendor. For instance, field  78  which is the default picture of the aircraft, may be deleted, whereas in field  80  an exterior picture view, in field  82  a small block picture view, in field  84  an interior picture view, or as shown in field  86 , a blue print picture view may be deleted assuming one was originally supplied.  
         [0056]    As will be seen the data entry format also has a field  88  indicating the minimum number of passengers. There is a field  90  indicating the maximum number of passengers, a field  92  indicating the minimum acceptable trip and a field  94  illustrating the minimum hours per day to charge. As illustrated in  96  there is a minimum cost per hour per day, whereas field  98  indicates the minimum hours per leg to charge. Field  100  indicates the minimum cost per hour per leg.  
         [0057]    In terms of fees, a landing fee field  102  is included. An overnight fee is included in field  104 , a take off fee is included in field  106  and a field  108  is provided to indicate the amount to be charged per hour of waiting.  
         [0058]    As can be seen by field  110 , the field indicates whether or not the plane has a required passenger tax, and as seen in field  112  whether the plan has an associated cargo tax. As seen in field  114  some planes over a certain gross weight have the requirement that an excise tax be applied.  
         [0059]    The hourly rates of the plane are entered in respective fields  114 ,  116 ,  118 ,  120  and  122  to indicate which are staged rates for different ranges, the rates being specified respectively in fields  124 ,  126  and  128 . These fields specify the hourly rate ranges for 1-500 miles, 500-1000 miles and 1000-1600 miles, which rates apply to the hourly rates noted above. As seen in field  130  a per-leg bias is depicted in which for every leg of the flight additional minutes are added. These biases relate to the difficulty of turning the plane and getting it ready for take-off. The leg bias rate is entered in field  132 .  
         [0060]    It will be appreciated that the data entered by the vendor is used directly by the Quoter in providing the quotation for the trip. Since these fields are entered by the vendor, they can be provided in real time to the Quoter by virtue of their reposing in the airplane server due to the fact of the continuous connection of the vendor to the server.  
         [0061]    Referring now to FIG. 4, what is described is the interface between the booking entity and the quoting system of FIG. 1. As can be seen, in order to initiate a quote as shown at  150 , the process is started in which the date and the “from” and “to” fields of block  152  are filled in. Airport data from storage  154  is inputted so that upon determining whether the trip is a one-way trip as illustrated at  156 , a round trip as illustrated at  158 , a multi-leg as illustrated at  160 , or a wait-return as illustrated at  162  this fact is inputted to a distance calculating unit  164  or in the case of a multi-leg unit, a next decision block  166 , the purpose of which will allow additional destinations to be inputted. A decision block  168  is provided to indicate whether or not the multi-leg trip has been finished. If all of the legs have been considered, then a total distance calculation is derived at  164 .  
         [0062]    After the distance calculation has been made, which in one embodiment is a great circle calculation; an aircraft is selected at  170  from the available aircraft stored at  172  and the crew data as stored at  174 . The selected airplanes are limited as illustrated in  176  by trip length and by size as well as maximum passengers. The output of this unit is used along with an indication of available crew to find an available crew and aircraft as illustrated in  178 , with the acceptable aircraft and crew then designating an available aircraft for which there is a calculated price as illustrated in  180 . The prices are displayed as illustrated in  182 , from which a plane may be selected at  184 .  
         [0063]    As illustrated in  190 , there is an opportunity for the client, agent or broker to indicate that an aircraft with the appropriate crew at the appropriate price is acceptable. This indication is made to a booking unit  192 , which upon approval goes to a confirmation block  194 . If it is not acceptable, then the process is started again as illustrated in Block  150 .  
         [0064]    Confirmation includes field  196  that includes whether or not money has been collected, an aircraft has been selected, a crew has been scheduled, and that the vendor has been notified. Verification is accomplished by notification system  34  of FIG. 1 which includes notification that credit card has been confirmed, that the crew is available and notified by e-mail they have to work, that the aircraft is blocked from the schedule so that it cannot be booked by another entity and that the vendor has in fact been notified.  
         [0065]    Referring now to FIG. 5, what will be seen is that within the Quoter, a timeline is generated and displayed such as illustrated at  200 . Here, the identity of the scheduled aircraft is visually displayed along with symbols indicating that as to this particular airplane, it starts at Laconia which is KLCI, transits to Montreal, which is CYUL and returns to Laconia. This is illustrated by blocks  202 ,  204  and  206 , all of which are presented on the timeline. As illustrated by block  208 , the aircraft is indicated as being unavailable due to maintenance for the corresponding block of time.  
         [0066]    The associated crew and mechanic are illustrated at field  210 , such that Frank is indicated as the pilot for the particular flight. And as illustrated at  212 , Joe is the mechanic. Then as illustrated at  214 , the aircraft leaves Laconia and goes to Montreal where it is parked. The pilot for this flight is indicated at  216  to be Bob. It turns out that for the next flight from Montreal as illustrated at block  220 , a flight to Bedford as illustrated at  222 , namely KBED, finishes in Laconia as illustrated at  224 , with Mary being the pilot as illustrated at  226 . It is important to note that for this company Mary is available in Montreal on Monday.  
         [0067]    It will be seen that the data on the crew pull is illustrated at  230  such that Mary, Bob and Frank are illustrated as being pilots, with their availability for each of the dates being denoted by whether the person is indicated as being “on” or being “off”.  
         [0068]    Likewise as illustrated at  232 , for the mechanic&#39;s pull, mechanics include Joe and Doug, with Joe and Doug being on or off as illustrated by the “on” or “off” indication in the corresponding fields.  
         [0069]    It will be noted that with respect to the fields indicated by reference character  200 , Mary is scheduled to fly into Montreal. However, it is federally mandated that pilots must have a predetermined period of rest before they can fly again. In order to assure compliance, the system depicts a guard zone, such that Mary after a certain period of time, as illustrated in  226 , is permitted to fly. As can be seen from display  200 , this means Mary is permitted to fly the plane from Montreal to Bedford, with the flight then finishing in Laconia. Note that the restriction is that the lay time must be 10 hours for every 24-hour period.  
         [0070]    As also can be seen from display  200 , there is a guard period in terms of piloting of this particular aircraft. The aircraft itself, however, can be piloted by someone else even if one pilot is precluded from flying.  
         [0071]    So that, at a glance, the vendor, the broker, the agent or even the client can ascertain that the airplane is available, regardless of the amount of time that the particular pilot has left.  
         [0072]    Note that in order to generate a presentation at display  200 , data must be stored as illustrated at  236 , which data comes from airport data  22 , aircraft data  112  and crew data  174 .  
         [0073]    It will be appreciated that the data stored at  236  is data which is uniquely useable by the vendors whether or not it is used in booking or other venues. Thus upon entry of vendor data into the central server, this data provides for each vendor its own bookkeeping and scheduling system. After processing by the central server, this processed data is transmitted back to the vendor via the central server to which it is continuously connected. Thus the central server is used in generating information uniquely useable by each of the vendors.  
         [0074]    Having discussed the scheduling component and the utilization of the display  200  to facilitate scheduling, it will be appreciated that the aforementioned Quoter takes information from the scheduling component to indicate that a given plane, namely plane N401SB with pilot Mary can in fact depart from Montreal and go to Bedford. This indication can be seen at  240  due to the query that is run.  
         [0075]    Note that the Quoter as illustrated at  250  can schedule a trip from Montreal to Bedford on Aug. 10, 2002, with the particular aircraft selected by aircraft selector  170  of FIG. 4. The Quoter is provided with the one-way, round trip or multi-leg information as illustrated at  252  so that by virtue of which kind of trip is desired, distance calculator  254  calculates the distance. Here it can be seen that the one-way trip distance is rather easy to calculate. The round trip distance is derived from the round trip scheduling component  256 , whereas the multi-leg component is calculated at  258 .  
         [0076]    Upon calculation of the appropriate distance, a price  260  is set and presented, whereas as illustrated at  262 , it is either accepted or not. If accepted a confirmation process is started as illustrated at  264 . As noted hereinbefore, if the booking is not accepted, one returns to start as illustrated at  266 .  
         [0077]    Referring now to FIG. 6, what is shown is a system for the tailored weighting for the selection of a vendor so as to be able to provide a method of selecting preferred vendors.  
         [0078]    In this instance, a customer  300  goes either through path 1 or path 2, wherein path 1 works through an agency private label enterprise as illustrated in  302 , or with a particular agent as illustrated in  304 . The decision of which agent to use is illustrated at the agent selector box  306 . Regardless of which agent is selected, a broker is selected at  308 , with one of a number of agents being illustrated. The vendor selection is accomplished by vendor selector  310 , which pre-selects preferred vendors depending on for instance, the particular broker&#39;s choices. Thus if the customer initially selected the private label agency, and the agency has a particularly good relationship with a particular broker, in this case Air Webster, then the system is weighted to select Air Webster&#39;s slate of vendors.  
         [0079]    Having gone through vendor selector  310 , the particular slate of Air Webster vendors is alerted as illustrated at  312  to initiate a quote for the entire trip. This quote is then inputted to the booking unit such as that illustrated at  33  in FIG. 1 or booking unit  194  in FIG. 4. Notification is then supplied to complete the process as illustrated at  314 .  
         [0080]    Note that if another broker is utilized, in this case Sky Jet, then Sky Jet has its own slate of vendors here illustrated at  316 , which are then activated to provide the appropriate quote for booking and confirmation.  
         [0081]    Referring now to FIG. 7, what is described as a sub-routine which provides a Task Load Alerting System. The purpose of the system is to alert at a glance what days have a large number of tasks to be performed, namely “heavy days”, those requiring no tasks, or those requiring only a few tasks. As can be seen, the tasks are shaded or color-coded, with shading or color codes indicating the amount of activity for each day of the week. Here as can be seen, color coded boxes  400 ,  401 ,  402 ,  404 ,  406 ,  408 ,  410  and  412  correspond to the task load, respectively for days Wednesday through Tuesday.  
         [0082]    As can be seen for Wednesday, the workload is moderate as indicated by the moderate shading of the block  400 , whereas for Thursday, the shading is light indicating a light task load. The shading for boxes  404 ,  406  and  408  is heavy, indicating that for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a large number of tasks are to be performed each day, whereas for Monday the load is light and for Tuesday the load is non-existent.  
         [0083]    Each of the tasks for each of the days is depicted below the task bar line. For instance for Friday, a number of tasks are as illustrated at box  414 . These tasks are for instance collecting a deposit, scheduling a particular trip coming up on Sunday, preparing for an inspection, finishing contract negotiation with a particular bank, checking the weather for all of the Saturday flights, and submitting customs data for the designated trip on Monday.  
         [0084]    The abovementioned Task Load Alerting System provides for a convenient page at a glance appraisal of the week&#39;s workload, while at the same time serving as a reminder of the tasks for each day.  
         [0085]    A program listing follows which describes the subject system: 
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
 
         [0086]    Having now described a few embodiments of the invention, and some modifications and variations thereto, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the foregoing is merely illustrative and not limiting, having been presented by the way of example only. Numerous modifications and other embodiments are within the scope of one of ordinary skill in the art and are contemplated as falling within the scope of the invention as limited only by the appended claims and equivalents thereto.