Carmen Systems, Sweden, has installed Carmen Crew Assignment and Preferential Bidding System for British Airways at Gatwick Airport in London. The system not only provides British Airways with considerably lower production costs, but also makes it easier for air-bound personnel to control their working hours by submitting personal requests for where, when and with whom they want to fly. Through "Interbids", Carmen's Internet application, a schedule is prepared with consideration to the airline's needs, agreements and regulations, and each individual's personal requests.

The Carmen Preferential Bidding project at Gatwick started in June 2000 and has been completed in record time. By February this year, the first pilots could fly according to the new system. At the same time, it is apparent that the system well exceeds the customer's expectations, both in regards to increased productivity and improved quality of life for the pilots.

"This system has set a new standard for British Airways when it comes to proceeding from the idea stage to full implementation. Coupled with a new industry agreement, the system will generate considerable savings for the company. At the same time, improved employee satisfaction will mean long-term returns. Carmen Systems' expertise and British Airways enthusiasm for change has resulted in an excellent outcome", says Mike Szucs, chief pilot at British Airway's EuroGatwick.

"British Airways played a significant role in the success of the project. It is easy to work with professional people who give clear, well-defined specifications. It has been very stimulating and fun to work in such positive surroundings", says Anders Bohlin at Carmen Systems.

"The strong commitment of all individuals involved, together with the excellent cooperation between British Airways and Carmen Systems, are the foremost reasons it was possible to install Carmen Preferential Bidding System so quickly. It has been a pleasure to be involved in such a project", says Rob Moran, project manager at British Airways.

"This co-operation clearly illustrates that resource optimization is the answer to most organizations resource dilemmas. It marks the beginning of a rapid change and development of the entire global transportation industry, where optimization is not only a question of cutting costs, but can also be used in a competitiveness sense by heightening employees' quality of life", says Per Norén, CEO at Carmen Systems.

Carmen Systems is a world-leading developer and supplier of resource optimization solutions, specializing in applications for the airline and transportation industry. Clients include among many others British Airways, Lufthansa, SAS, Aeroméxico and SJ (Swedish Railways). Carmen Systems is a rapidly expanding organization and today has 110 staff from 22 countries. The company is the market leader in Europe and is forging ahead in North America. Carmen is also involved in joint research activities with some of the world's leading universities and the HQ in Göteborg has the largest R&D; section in the industry.

December 15, 2000: Carmen Development Partners Annual Meeting - 12 December

Carmen Systems hosted its third annual Carmen Development Partners meeting, by the Gothenburg riverside, on 12 December. Carmen strongly believes in close relationships with its clients in its aim of providing reliable, cutting edge, cost-saving solutions. The Carmen Development Partners Group was therefore set up in 1998 as a discussion forum. The Group consists of all the clients who have signed long-term partnership agreements with Carmen.

Discussions focussed on prioritising improvements to the current solutions, as well as discussing and prioritising longer-term development. Workshops were held about Carmen's development of the Power Integration and Carmen Connect concepts, and a workshop about on-line help and "wizards". In the evening everybody learnt about the history of making porter, before the meeting closed with a traditional Swedish Christmas buffet.

"I think the meeting was very successful. Our clients are exceedingly constructive and happy with us. We have gained valuable input for steering our R&D; in future," said Ola Tiverman, Director of R&D.; "For many developers this is an opportunity to discuss developments with clients face-to-face. The clients also appreciate the opportunity of meeting colleagues from other companies," he concluded.

November 15, 2000: Strong growth continued in Q3

I am very pleased to announce that the strong growth continued in Q3 as expected, with the first nine months revenue reaching SEK 50.8 million (37.8).", reports Leif Heidenfors, Carmen's CFO. "The number of employees was 100 and we expect to see this strong growth continuing in Q4"

October 19, 2000: GE Capital invests in Carmen Systems

GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) and GE Equity have invested $10 million, (around SEK 95 million) in the Göteborg-based Carmen Systems. This means that GE Capital is one of the major shareholders in Carmen Systems. At the same time current owners, Innovationskapital of Sweden and the Dutch Gilde IT-fund will be investing the equivalent of almost SEK 10 million and SEK 5 million respectively. With this, Carmen Systems has taken a dynamic step in becoming the world's leading supplier of integrated resource optimization solutions for the transport industry.

Carmen Systems is a world leader in integrated planning and decision-support solutions for airlines. The company develops solutions for optimal use of crews and vehicles. Carmen Systems' solutions also enhance clients' flexibility ahead of sudden and temporary changes in travel patterns, contributing to the maximization of revenues and minimization of costs.

Clients include, among others, British Airways, Lufthansa, SAS, Aeroméxico and SJ (Swedish State Railways). Carmen Systems is constantly developing its resource optimization solutions in close co-operation with its clients. This clear customer focus was one of the factors that contributed to GE Capital deciding to invest in Carmen Systems.

"This is a company with a customer-focused culture similar to our own and a management team that has already succeeded in an extremely competitive environment," says Sherwood Dodge, Managing Director of GE Equity Europe.

GECAS owns and manages a fleet of 950 aircraft and provides services to 155 customers in 54 countries. GECAS provides airlines with a full range of fleet and financing solutions. GE Equity Europe is one of the leading providers of equity capital to growing companies across continental Europe.

"GE Capital provides both expertise and capital. This new shareholding represents a very significant step for Carmen Systems in achieving our ultimate objective of being the number one resource optimization solutions provider for the transport industry," says Per Norén, Carmen's CEO.

October 3, 2000: Carmen Systems sets legal foot in North America to pursue international expansion

A year and a half ago Carmen Systems AB initiated its International expansion by hiring sales and support personnel based in Montreal Canada. As per plan this operation has been growing its activities and staff continually.

At this time, Carmen is pleased to announce that it has incorporated a company in the USA, Carmen Systems Inc. and one in Canada, Carmen Systems Ltd. Per Norén, Carmen Systems' CEO, says that this is mainly to meet the company's main objective of providing outstanding customer service, by decentralizing company operations in order to bring decision making closer to the clients. Mr. Norén also added that this move was required in view of the corporation's goal of becoming a global solutions provider.

October 02, 2000: Carmen Systems receives order from Aeroméxico worth $ 1.85 million

Aeroméxico, Mexico's leading airline and one of the four new members in "Skyteam", the latest global airline alliance, today ordered Carmen's new Crew Tracking and Crew Check-in system.

Carmen Systems has launched its new Crew Tracking system with Aeroméxico, the leading Mexican airline. The airline has ordered a Crew Tracking system for the tracking and administration management of its crew resources. Carmen Crew Tracking gives users unique online control over the crew rostering situation at any time, regarding changes in flight plans and crew availability. It also provides the user with decision support, ensuring the ability to react effectively to any changing situation.

"We have seen nothing but success after success at Aeroméxico by using Carmen Systems' productivity improving solutions. Before we started working with Carmen we didn't have an integrated solution that could manage the complex and expensive problem of crew rostering, now we can effortlessly manage our Crew resources and Fleet (tail) assignments by using one of their integrated solutions," says Alberto Castrejon, Senior Vice President at Aeroméxico.

"I am really looking forward to working with Aeroméxico and developing Carmen Crew Tracking into the industry standard," says Ulf Hellman, Carmen Crew Tracking Product Manager.

September 3-5, 2000: Carmen Users Conference

Many thanks to all of you who took part and made, what we think was, the "Conference of the Year!" Our clients, representing the different transportation sectors we work with, met at the World Trade Center in Stockholm for 3 exciting days of presentations, workshops, and discussion.

"We had the opportunity to see and discuss the challenges and the achievements of the resource integration, in both planning phase and operations. We look forward to next year's conference where we hope to give a presentaiton on Carmen Tail Assignment," says Wilbert Arjona, Aircraft Utilization Planning Chief Aeroméxico.

There were 155 delegates attending from all over the world. This is a true reflection of how international Carmen really is. Of course, we couldn't have managed it all without the wonderful helping hand we received from SJ, in particular Jolanta Drott.

Congratulations to our golf tournament winners! The winners included: Christer Ytterberg, Karin Ytterberg (SAS), Axel Fröhlich (Lufthansa Cargo) and Mikael Linde (SAS).

Spanair will host next year's conference on Mallorca. We hope to see you all there!

August 15, 2000: Impressive Q2 results

"With a continued growth rate of 39% we have now dramatically increased our market share" reports Leif Heidenfors Carmen's CFO. "With 40% of revenues invested in R&D; during the period there is a clear indicator that our focus is on long term growth rather than on short term profits".

July 14, 2000: Carmen Systems releases new Fleet product line at Aeroméxico

Aeroméxico, the leading airline in Mexico, has ordered a system for the planning of its aircraft fleet. The system includes Carmen Tail Assignment and Carmen Maintenance Scheduling which makes it possible to efficiently utilize aircraft and contributes to Aeroméxico's effort to be more cost effective, reliable and environmentally friendly.

"The technology that Carmen has developed will play an increasingly important roll in airline IT infrastructure in future. Carmen helps us to implement changes to our ways of working," says Jorge Wheatley, CIO and Senior Vice President, Aeroméxico.

"That Aeroméxico chose Carmen Systems as their partner over the keen competition is additional proof that our biggest research effort within resource optimization is being recognized far beyond Europe's borders. Carmen's focus on state-of-the-art technology and long-term customer relations is the basis of our rapid expansion," says Per Norén, President and CEO at Carmen Systems.

June 30, 2000: Carmen Systems receives prestige order from British Airways

British Airways, one of the world's largest and most prestigious airlines, today ordered an Internet based Crew Rostering system, Carmen Crew Assignment, for its Gatwick-based operation. The system will be equipped with Carmen Preferential Bidding and Carmen Interbids, allowing crewmembers to express their desired work schedules from any device with an Internet connection.

Carmen Systems is a vital partner for us. Their expertise in flight operations and their powerful products are extremely important tools that help us achieve our high standards of cost-efficiency, reliability and caring for our crews’ quality of life, says David Cliffe, General Manager Manpower Planning at British Airways

We are honoured that British Airways, once again, has chosen Carmen Systems as its partner in the Crew planning sector. Coupled with the fact that we are rapidly expanding our business together signals that our dedicated focus on integration, customer care and state of the art products is highly regarded, says Mathias Kremer, Area sales manager at Carmen.

Carmen Systems is a world-leading developer and supplier of resource optimization solutions, specializing in applications for the airline and transportation industry. Clients include, among others, British Airways, Lufthansa, SAS and Aeroméxico. Carmen Systems is a rapidly expanding organization and today has 90 staff from 18 countries. Carmen Systems are also involved in joint research activities with some of the world’s leading universities and our HQ in Göteborg has the largest R&D; section in the industry.

June 16, 2000: Carmen Systems integrated solution now includes Carmen Crew Tracking

"I am very proud to announce the availability of a new product in our integrated product suite. Carmen Crew Tracking fulfills our promise to supply our clients with a complete crew operation environment," says Per Norén, Carmen Systems' CEO.

Carmen Crew Tracking gives users full control over the crew situation at any time. Online updates on flight rotations are included. Web-interface including mobile communication technologies such as mobile phones, palm pilots, lap tops etc. Messages to Check-in system, Screen reports, Printed reports and e-mail enables extensive communication possibilities with crew.

All functionality of the Carmen Crew Pairing system and the Carmen Crew Assignment system is available in Carmen Crew Tracking allowing a fully integrated process. Please contact Ulf Hellman, Project Manager ([email protected]) for more information.

June 13, 2000: Q1 results on target!

"With a 39% growth rate in Q1 2000, compared to our extremely strong Q1 1999 (58%), we are well on target. The operating income was stronger then expected and staff increased to 81," reports Leif Heidenfors, Carmen's CFO.