Nevena: Leon has been innovating in aviation software since 2005. Could you share the story behind its creation and how your platform has evolved over these past two decades?

Paweł: Leon was founded in 2005 as a straightforward flight scheduling solution aimed at streamlining everyday tasks for small flight departments. As our customer base grew, we listened to operators who needed more comprehensive digital tools – covering everything from crew management to flight logs and dispatch. This led us to expand our scope and develop Leon into a robust operations management platform. While our feature set has grown tremendously over the years, our core philosophy remains the same: automate wherever possible, deliver a seamless user experience, and ensure reliable data handling – all with the unique demands of business aviation in mind.

Nevena: What were the key industry challenges that influenced Leon’s development from a scheduling tool into a comprehensive operations management platform?

Paweł: Operators often found themselves juggling multiple disconnected systems – one for scheduling, another for crew planning, a different one for sales, and so on – leading to inefficient workflows and frequent data inconsistencies. We recognized an opportunity to unify these processes in a single platform that shares and synchronizes data automatically. The biggest challenge was finding the right balance between offering flexible customization options and maintaining a standardized, user-friendly environment. Ultimately, this goal of cohesive, integrated operations became the driving force behind our evolution from a scheduling tool into a complete management solution.

Nevena: Leon is known for its integrated approach to flight operations. Could you highlight how your platform brings together scheduling, crew management, and sales in a way that’s unique to the business aviation sector?

Paweł: Leon acts as the single source of truth for all operational data. Any update to a flight schedule automatically ripples through associated fields like crew assignments, passenger details, and sales information. This integrated setup eliminates the need for time-consuming re-entry of data and minimizes human error. In business aviation – where last-minute changes are the norm – this seamless connectivity ensures everyone involved, from crew members to sales teams, has real-time information. It provides an agility that’s hard to replicate when using multiple standalone systems.

Nevena: That level of integration makes a big difference in an industry where schedules can change by the hour. With technology evolving so rapidly, how is Leon approaching the integration of AI into areas like crew scheduling optimization and flight operations?

Paweł: At Leon, we see AI primarily as a way to automate processes that were previously tough to streamline. A great example is our latest features that allow users to edit document templates or build complex reports based on a straightforward description of business logic. With these advances, operators can accomplish tasks more easily, affordably, and rapidly – tasks that once required significant time, knowledge, and expense. While we do continue to explore AI-assisted crew scheduling, our overarching goal remains to simplify day-to-day processes and give users more freedom to tailor the system to their own needs, without requiring complicated deployments or coding.