First Choice Airways, part of the leading leisure travel company First Choice, has revolutionised its delivery operations thanks to an innovative web service from NetDespatch.  The Manchester-airport based airline relies on couriers to deliver hundreds of items to support its business and flight operations.  It discovered NetDespatch after switching to the parcel carrier APC Overnight.

APC were one of the pioneers for the web technology in the UK.  Their Velocity web service developed by NetDespatch had an immediate effect on First Choice Airways, allowing the company to cut paperwork, streamline its administration and improve its office operations.

First Choice Airways use the service to book collections and deliveries online, producing barcoded parcel labels ready for collection by APC Overnight couriers.  The airline then tracks consignments on the web giving staff complete visibility of all items being transported.  The tracking facility is particularly useful as many items are 'mission critical' and the secure on-time delivery of key documents for example can be crucial to flight departures.

"NetDespatch is fabulous" says Jo Caldwell of First Choice Airways.  "We rely on APC to handle all sorts of items and many are very time critical.  There is just no room for error and with the online booking and tracking, APC's service is leaps and bounds ahead of the many other couriers we have used.  In management terms NetDespatch is a real step forward - all the information we need is just a click away and we really feel that we are now in much greater control of our collections and deliveries."  

First Choice Airways has a fleet of 32 aircraft operating from 15 UK airports.  Flying six million customers on more than 30,000 flights a year, the airline has around 60 destinations world-wide. It was founded in 1987 as air2000 with the aim of delivering value for money while maintaining exceptional service and performance standards. First Choice Airways consistently receives industry and consumer recognition winning the prestigious British Travel Award for Best Charter Airline 3 times and the Golden Globe in the same category 6 times.