AerScheduler vs Airplane Manager

Flight school software, not corporate jet scheduling

Airplane Manager is built for corporate flight departments and says so plainly. A flight school day looks nothing like that: students and renters booking themselves, instructors with availability and their own rates, aircraft billed by the hour, and an invoice at the end of every flight. AerScheduler is built for that day, and we help you move across and get set up rather than handing you a login and wishing you luck.

$20/aircraft/mo · 14-day trial · No credit card · No sales call

Switching, without the project

The reason schools stay somewhere they have outgrown is rarely the software. It is the week they imagine losing to moving. Here is what actually happens.

A person moves your data, not an importer

Export what you can out of Airplane Manager and we get it into AerScheduler with you. Odd formats and missing fields become a conversation rather than a dead end, because a human is doing it.

We set the school up with you

Aircraft, rates, instructors, permissions and booking rules, configured with the team that builds the product. On a call if you want one, and never as a condition of signing up.

Keep both running until you are ready

Nothing forces a cutover date. Run Airplane Manager alongside AerScheduler and stop using it when the front desk stops opening it, which is usually the moment you know.

Nothing to sign, nothing locked in

14 days free and no card to start. Every report exports to CSV, so the answer to "what if we change our mind" is a download rather than a support ticket.

Product preview

Students and renters book themselves

The rules are yours: who is approved on which aircraft, how far ahead they can book, whether an instructor is required. The desk stops being a switchboard.

app.aerscheduler.com/me/book

You

Book a flight

Aircraftpick one

N172SP · Cessna 172S

Instructorpick one

Alex Chen

Typepick one

Dual

Date

Wed, Jul 22

Timepick one

08:00-10:00

Available

Aircraft and instructor are free in this window.

Want to drive the real thing? Open the live sandbox, no signup required.

Why schools move

  • Your schedule is driven by students and renters, not by trip requests
  • Instructors need availability, pairing and their own rates
  • Aircraft are billed by Hobbs or tach, and every flight ends in an invoice
  • $20 per aircraft with every student, instructor and renter included

What a training operation needs that a jet schedule does not

The whole school sees the same schedule, immediately

A booking change reaches every browser and phone in the school as it happens, so the front desk, the instructor walking to the ramp and the student at home are never looking at three different versions of today.

Scheduling & Dispatch

The flight closes itself out into an invoice

Ramp in with Hobbs, tach and fuel, and the invoice drafts from the rates already on the tail. No export, no second system, no evening spent reconciling the day's flying against the schedule.

Billing

One reservation can hold several people, and several invoices

A ground-school class, two pilots sharing a cross-country, a checkride with an examiner. Split the cost per head, by logged time, or in shares you set, and everyone gets their own invoice.

Split billing

An aircraft that is out of annual cannot be booked

Inspections carry server-computed due dates against hours and calendar time. When one comes due the aircraft grounds itself on the board, so nobody dispatches a tail that should not fly.

Maintenance

Simulators and classrooms cost nothing

They are first-class resources on the dispatch board, bookable like any tail, and they never appear on your bill. You pay $20 per aircraft and nothing else, however many people you invite.

Pricing

Side-by-side

TopicAerSchedulerAirplane Manager
Who it is built forFlight schools, flying clubs and aircraft rental operations.Corporate flight departments and private jet operations
Pricing$20/mo per aircraft. Unlimited users. Simulators and classrooms free.Monthly plans by aircraft count
The people on the systemStudents, instructors, renters, dispatchers, technicians and office staff, each with their own permissions.Pilots, passengers, owners and schedulers
Self-bookingApproved students and renters book their own aircraft and instructor within rules you set.Not published
InstructorsWeekly availability, student pairing, and dual and ground rates that flow into the invoice.Not published
Closing out a flightRamp in with Hobbs, tach and fuel, and the invoice drafts from the rates on the tail.Not published
Billing the renterStripe cards and ACH, account balances, and dues for club members.Not published
MaintenanceSquawks, inspections with server-computed due dates, and grounding that blocks the board.Not published
MobileNative iOS and Android apps for the whole team. Book, dispatch and close out from the ramp.Mobile access

Airplane Manager is a trademark of its owner and is built for a different kind of operation, which is the point of this page rather than a criticism. Rows describe what each product publishes; "not published" means we could not confirm it, not that it is absent.

When we may not be the right fit

  • You run a corporate flight department and need passenger manifests, catering and trip requests. Airplane Manager is built for that and we are not
  • You need crew duty-time tracking for Part 135 charter
  • Your aircraft are not billed by the hour to the person flying them

Common questions

Is Airplane Manager built for flight schools?
Airplane Manager describes itself as flight scheduling crafted for corporate jets, connecting pilots, passengers, owners and assistants. It is aimed at corporate flight departments rather than training operations.
Can students and renters book their own aircraft?
In AerScheduler, yes. Approved students and renters book their own aircraft and instructor within rules you set: who is approved on which tail, how far ahead they can book, and whether an instructor is required.
Does AerScheduler bill by Hobbs or tach time?
Either. Ramp in with Hobbs, tach and fuel and the invoice drafts from the rates already on the aircraft, so the flight is billed before the aircraft is tied down.
What does AerScheduler cost?
$20 per aircraft per month, with every student, instructor, renter and staff member included. Simulators and classrooms are free.

Try AerScheduler on your own fleet

Add a tail, put a flight on the board, ramp it in and watch the invoice draft itself. 14 days, no credit card, no sales call.

Pricing · Features