merlot.aero’s airline operations management system provides a comprehensive, low-cost solution for airline organizational and operational management. It covers all aspects of airline resource planning and control to ensure the safety, efficiency and quality of your crew and operational environment.

merlot.aero enables you to forecast, organize, plan, predict, measure and report to optimize daily aircraft and crew utilization. It allows you to easily achieve regulatory compliance and assures your control of core operational information which will enable effective management of your business while maximizing your airline’s operational efficiency.

By leveraging cloud technology merlot.aero delivers software, data access and storage remotely rather than via local servers to provide secure, fast, and affordable access to proven decision support tools that support crucial areas of your airline business, without large capital outlay. With merlot.aero your personnel have instant, real-time visibility to critical data and can update and manage operational information anywhere, anytime via a secure connection. Messy paper trails, multiple systems and processes, spreadsheets and even whiteboards will be a thing of the past.

merlot.aero is a fully integrated and centralized approach to managing your airline operations more effectively. It has been developed with the entire business process in mind – including the customer process from the moment ticket sales are planned until the point the passenger reaches their destination.

merlot.aero is a proven solution that uses the latest technologies and functions to:

• Increase crew productivity with more efficient, optimized pairings and rosters

• Increase aircraft utilization through better planning and forecasting

• Reduce overall aircraft operation costs with tighter control

• Increase accessibility to all airline operating metrics enabling better decision making

• Allow crew more ‘self service’ in managing work life

• Improve disrupt management with real-time, accurate data access

• Reduce operations staff workload thus increasing staff per crew ratio 

• Save precious IT resources via cloud deployment options 

• More efficiently manage operational cost exposure to hotac, ground transport, dead-head and unscheduled events

• Enhance crew relations and improve crew morale

• Ensure safety through achieving full regulatory compliance

• Actively report on and manage productivity

• Reduce your capital outlay with predictable and affordable monthly operating costs.

The features and capabilities of merlot.aero are offered in a choice of flexible options to suit your airline’s needs.

Open

Cloud-based

With merlot.aero your personnel can update and manage operational information of your airline anywhere, anytime, using any browser via a secure connection. As no IT investment is required it is possible to rapidly start using the system.

Mobile

merlot.aero provides the freedom of mobility. You can access merlot.aero on your iPhone, iPad, EFB, PDA or any other mobile device that is connected to the internet.

Personal

The tasks and activities are very much yours. They connect your staff and allow them self-management of their lifestyle.

Turnkey

It is ready out-of the box. It will be deployed in your company as a turnkey solution so that you can use more than twenty products, services and support right now without any IT infrastructure in your company. It is a fully hosted and fully outsourced solution.

Centralized

It shows on time performance and real time data to make sure everyone in your airline has exactly the same information around the globe whenever it's required. merlot is a fully integrated and centralised approach to managing your airline.

Comprehensive

It is one-stop solution for all of your airline needs. It has been developed with the entire business process in mind – including the customer process from the moment ticket sales are planned until the point the passenger reaches their destination.

Scalable

merlot is highly scalable. It grows as the needs of your airline grow, offering scalability on demand from large International flights to small charter operations.

Paper-free

It creates a way to a paper-free environment. Messy paper trails, multiple systems and processes, spreadsheets and even whiteboards will be a thing of the past.

Customizable

Customer airlines can tailor the system according to the needs of the company or may ask for a customized version designed specifically for themselves.

Adapted by

Merlot is adapted by leading small, medium and large airlines.

1

PC/Mobile Device 

You must have  a MAC, PC (with Windows XP/Vista/7/8) or a mobile device with a reliable access to a secure Internet connection.

2

Web Browser

You must have Internet Explorer version 8 or higher or any version of Firefox, Google Chrome and Apple Safari. If you do not have any of these browsers you can search for them on the web.

3

Silverlight plug-in

You must have Silverlight plug-in for browser installed. When you try to use merlot.aero, for the first time, you will see the window below.  Simply click on the Click now to install button.

4

Login Credentials

You must have your login credentials (User name and Password) and user security rights, from your administrator. 

5

Connectivity Considerations

merlot runs within an Internet browser and thus relies on the quality of the Internet connectivity provided.

Customers are encouraged to get an understanding from their Internet Service Provider (ISP) as to the Committed Information Rate (CIR) that they are receiving; basically the guaranteed bandwidth available.  It is a Quality of Service (QoS) setting.

What Merlot needs is for a guarantee of CIR as a typical best effort service may not be acceptable. The ISP needs to guarantee a minimum bandwidth (the CIR) to the customer and the customer needs to ensure that there is a minimum bandwidth available to their merlot users.

Some useful tools include:

• http://pingtest.net/ (Quality of your broadband Internet connection)

• http://speedtest.net/ (Speedtest.Net)

• Azure Throughput Analyser

Connection scenario example:

• The customer has a 10Mbps Internet connection

• It has 10 concurrent users accessing Merlot collectively consuming 2Mbps

• A replication for another service is running to their DR site over a WAN link that uses the same net connection as merlot which is consuming 4Mbps

• The total load (throughput) is 6Mbps on a 10Mbps pipe (bandwidth)

If the 10Mbps connection (bandwidth) they are paying for is actually running at a throughput of 10Mbps then there is no issue. However, if it is a best effort service then chances are sooner or later lots of other people will try and download via the same ISP at the same time and this is when you need a CIR – it’s a guarantee of the bandwidth available.

merlot customers need to:

• Ensure that their ISP is providing a premium service where they have QoS (Quality of Service) configured to provide an agreed CIR (i.e. the ISP reserves a certain amount of their total bandwidth which is dedicated for the customer)

• Ensure that their internal infrastructure is configured to provide a guaranteed bandwidth for the merlot users – this is QoS rule on their gateway.

Disable bandwidth consuming applications:

Once the CIR and QoS items are known and set, then the users PC must be examined to ensure that the PC is relatively clean of bandwidth hogging applications. These applications may include Windows Updates, virus definition updates, Java updates, acrobat updates etc. and all other items such as instant messenger and remote backup.

Each user browser should also be checked to ensure that add-on's are disabled that may take browser resources or additional bandwidth.

Questions for your Internet Service Provider (ISP):

Every customer is responsible for ensuring their ISP provides the Committed Information Rate as stated above and that that guaranteed bandwidth is made available to the merlot user workstations for the sole purpose of accessing the merlot cloud service. You must ask your ISP:

• Does your ISP reserve a certain amount of their total bandwidth, which is dedicated for the customer?

• Is the internal infrastructure of your ISP configured to provide a guaranteed bandwidth for the merlot users?

• Is the minimum amount of guaranteed bandwidth constantly provided by your ISP?

• Has your ISP configured QoS to provide an agreed CIR?

• Have you evaluated your ISP using the tools mentioned above?