Connecting Asia To The World: Avinode’s Move Into Asia-Pacific

• Avinode

As the world’s leading air charter sales and sourcing platform, Avinode provides online search and transaction services that connect charter brokers and aircraft operators worldwide, and processes around eight million trip searches and 13 million trip requests annually. Since 2002, the company has driven the industry into the digital era, with a goal of simplifying operations, increasing efficiency, and enhancing the experience for brokers and operators in private aviation.

Brenton Melville, Avinode’s Asia-Pacific Business Development Manager, started out in Australia, then moved to Sweden, not for a better job, not for a better salary, but for the ultimate upgrade: for love. He joined Avinode in 2014 and has been with them for more than a decade. In this article, Melville discusses the company’s activities and presence in the Asia-Pacific region, its commitment to supporting regional growth, and efforts to integrate Asia-Pacific into its wider global network.

Since relocating back to Australia in 2022, Melville has led Avinode’s renewed focus in the Asia-Pacific region. Melville, who has worked at Avinode since 2014 and has served in sales and commercial roles across Europe, now serves as the company’s primary representative in Asia-Pacific. His relocation has translated renewed local engagement into significantly expanded supply, stronger broker relationships, and a marked increase in charter bookings. Avinode reports a roughly 66% rise in aircraft listings and around 30% increase in operators across Asia-Pacific after strengthening its local presence. Those supply gains helped drive platform activity, with domestic Asia-to-Asia trips climbing about 25% year-on-year in 2025, while international trips to or from Asia rose roughly 23%.

According to Asian Sky Group’s Asia-Pacific Charter Report 2025, the Asia-Pacific charter fleet grew by 18.8% compared to June 2023, reaching 430 aircraft by June 2025. Melville expects growth to continue in 2026 and beyond, but predicts normalisation to more moderate year-on-year increases. Importantly, he sees the uptick as part of a structural shift rather than a purely temporary rebound: Asia-Pacific remains less mature than the United States and Europe in terms of fleet growth, technology adoption and charter activity. Infrastructure investments, larger fleets entering the region and operators’ willingness to adopt technology all point toward steady, structural development over the coming years.

A crucial element in Avinode’s success in the region has been diversifying the fleet available on the platform. For years, the regional inventory skewed toward ultra long range and heavy jets, according to the Asia-Pacific Charter Report 2025, ultra long range (23%, e.g. G650, Global 7500) and heavy jets (19%, e.g. Challenger, Legacy 600) dominated the Asia-Pacific charter market.

That left light and midsize categories thinly represented; by growing listings in these smaller categories, Avinode has matched a broader set of trip requests.

Avinode’s data highlights the global nature of the business, with only about 20–25% of trip requests involving Asian-registered aircraft originating from brokers based within Asia. A large share still comes from Europe and the United States, reinforcing the idea that Asia-Pacific’s role in the charter ecosystem is tightly linked to overseas demand. For many Asia-Pacific operators, Avinode offers a route to international visibility. A broker in the United States or Europe seeking lift into Asia may not know the names of local operators; Avinode makes those fleets discoverable to a global buyer base, creating new commercial opportunities and improving utilization.

Avinode’s competitive advantage rests on real-time operator data. Brokers can see where an aircraft is based and where it will be positioned, enabling informed sourcing and faster quote turnaround. Avinode is building toward a fuller charter sales flow, with the company planning to tie sourcing into contracting, payments and post-quote operations, streamlining the transaction from search to completion.

Melville characterises regional competitors as positive market stimuli rather than threats. In his view,

“Avinode’s scale and global reach position the company as the likely dominant platform for sourcing aircraft globally, maintaining that leadership through continual product innovation and strong customer relationships.”

Looking ahead, Melville projects steady growth for the Asia-Pacific market over the next five years, driven by infrastructure investments, increasing fleet sizes, and rising regional confidence. He underscores the importance of maintaining close relationships with customers and continuously evolving solutions to meet their changing needs. Melville emphasises that relationships remain the foundation of business aviation. Avinode’s ability to listen, iterate product features based on operator feedback, and maintain a local presence has been central to its Asia-Pacific progress. The company’s product and engineering teams spend time with operators to understand day-to-day pain points and prioritise features that deliver real workflow improvements. As the market matures, Avinode remains committed to supporting the region’s growth and integrating Asia-Pacific into its broader global network, reinforcing its strategic focus on delivering value and fostering long-term partnerships across the Asia-Pacific. Especially, with the Asia-Pacific Charter Report survey results indicating that charter demand remains strong, with 42.6% of respondents expressing future charter intentions.

Melville’s journey from Sweden to Australia and his dedication to expanding Avinode’s presence in Asia-Pacific exemplify the company’s strategic vision: to be the leading digital marketplace for private air charter, supporting the region’s growing business aviation sector and driving industry innovation into the future. The company also plans to grow its Asia-Pacific team in the coming years.

Avinode avinode.com/asia-pacific/