News
Delta selects Navtech Preferential Bidding System

July 14, 2009, Toronto – Navtech, Inc. has expanded its contract with Delta, the world’s largest airline, for Navtech's Preferential Bidding System (PBS), a powerful crew rostering tool.  Use of PBS will be expanded to include more than 4,500 pilots from the former Northwest Airlines (NWA).  PBS consists of bidding and scheduling components and is best known for its ability to balance needs of airlines with quality of life requirements of crew.

“Navtech’s mission is to align closely with our customers, using their feedback to guide the development of our products,” said Mike Hulley, Navtech CEO.  “It’s gratifying to see the payoff of this commitment, knowing that pilots — whose quality of life is significantly impacted by crew planning — evaluated this product and found it to be superior.”

Delta, now the world’s largest airline, has used Navtech PBS since 2005.  It expanded its use to crew members of the former NWA after a comprehensive evaluation by both the Delta/NWA pilot group and airline management. 

Live bidding with Navtech PBS starts in August for Delta’s September schedule.  Crew members will experience Navtech’s intuitive user interface that will enable them to customize their bid requests according to their preferences. They will also have easy access to their awards with detailed pairing information and an industry leading Reasons Report explaining the results of each bid preference, including why the preference was or wasn't awarded.

The Navtech PBS Bidder works seamlessly with its PBS Scheduler counterpart to create a schedule that satisfies management's coverage needs and crew members' flying preferences. The PBS Scheduler gives administrators the ability to manage all of the information pertaining to crew members and the bid period, and then, balances it against important details such as the airline's rules, the seniority of the individual crew members, details for the bid period and more.  The PBS Scheduler gives administrators access to multiple reports on crew members, pairings and bid period information and crew utilization and efficiency.

“Navtech PBS, including their Concurrent Reserve Bidding System and soon to be implemented off-line Desktop bidding application, has worked well for the Delta pilots since October 2005.  We look forward to implementing this system for the former Northwest Airline pilots with the first phase scheduled to take place this August for the September 747-400 pilot schedules at Delta.”, states Tim Hennie-Roed, General Manager of Crew Resources at Delta.
 
Parri Olmstead, Chairman of Delta’s MEC Scheduling Committee, on behalf of ALPA, goes on to comment, “As the union representing the Delta pilots, we are pleased we were able to reach an agreement with Navtech that will allow Delta Air Lines to successfully integrate all 12,000+ pilots of the merged airline into the Navtech PBS ahead of schedule.”
 
To learn more about Navtech PBS or any of its products or services, please visit www.navtech.aero .