Thunder Bay aviation software company lands major federal contract | CBC News

A Thunder Bay aviation software company is celebrating a major milestone.

The Aircraft Services Directorate, which provides aviation services for Transport Canada, has selected AirSuite’s Cirro software for its flight operations software.

The $2.4-million contract is for three years, with an option for a further seven, said AirSuite CEO and founding senior developer Michael Kleywegt.

“Cirro Flight Management software will be used to optimize flight operations in support of environmental monitoring and surveillance, Coast Guard operations and government airlift,” he said. “It’s absolutely thrilling news to get to build the company to this point.”

Kleywegt said Cirro is flight operations management software for small-to-medium size operators; they can “use it to run your entire aviation company.”

“It helps you through the regulatory compliance processes, as it’s a very highly-regulated industry,” he said. “It saves a whole bunch of time and money.”

“You can focus on getting your aircraft out the door and working as opposed to all the auditing and compliance stuff that we take care of.”

AirSuite’s Chief Operating Officer Doug Carlson said the contract is a major milestone for the company.

“We’ve taken a lot of steps to get here,” he said. “The snowball’s been slow to roll at the beginning, as we started back in 2015 and we’ve built that professional software package that the federal regulator and their operating group is looking for.”

“So this is really big for us, and it brings a lot of confidence into our product and just the ability to grow our company to the point that we need to grow into other markets.”

The contract has also seen AirSuite not only expanding its workforce, but also its office space on Amber Drive in Thunder Bay.

Carlson said AirSuite has its eyes set on further expansion.

“Here in the Canadian market, we represent about 75 per cent of the helicopter operators across Canada, and about 30 per cent of the fixed-wing fleet,” he said, adding future goals include “more expansion on the fixed wing side as the product is is universal in that aspect, and then more international work in the U.S. and South America.”