Affinity Aviation Group takes shareholding in AeronautX UK as Austrian training provider expands in Britain
Why It MattersThe tie-up shows a sales-and-charter brokerage reaching into crew training, so that type-rating capacity for Challenger-class aircraft becomes a commercial lever alongside aircraft transactions and charter membership.
What happened
Affinity Aviation Group (AAG) has entered a strategic collaboration with Austria's AeronautX, described as Europe's newest business aviation training provider. AAG has taken a significant shareholding in AeronautX UK Ltd, which has recently set up an office within AAG's existing headquarters at Farnborough Airport, Hampshire.
AeronautX plans to open a new pilot academy near Amsterdam Airport Schiphol next spring. According to AeronautX Founder and CEO Jörg Oberhofer, the training centre opens in Q1 2027 with Bombardier Challenger 350/3500 and Challenger 650 full flight simulators, all UK CAA certified. AeronautX already holds Base Training approvals for Embraer and Gulfstream aircraft.
Affinity Founding CEO Andrew Hoy, a Training Captain on the Bombardier Global 7500 and a Type Rating Instructor across the Global family, worked with Niall Olver, Group Chair of AeronautX's parent company AX Aero, at ExecuJet from 2007 to 2014.
Affinity is in its 12th year of operations and reports record aircraft sales and acquisitions this year. It specialises in pre-owned Bombardier Global transactions, with its sales geography widening to Asia, the USA, South America and the Indian subcontinent.
Affinity's wider business
Affinity has appointed Christian Jones, formerly Charter Sales Manager/General Manager at Jersey-based AOC operator Ortac, to the new role of Sales and Business Development Director. The company is preparing to widen its activities in 2027.
Its fixed-fee private jet charter membership programme, flyAffinity, doubled its turnover to £2 million in 2026, welcomed 12 new members and kept a 100% client retention rate. Membership has expanded beyond the UK to Europe, the USA and the Middle East.
Industry impact & what to watch
Training capacity for large-cabin and super-midsize types is a bottleneck that sits upstream of both aircraft sales and charter operations: a new owner or operator cannot put a jet into service until its crews hold type ratings. A brokerage taking equity in a training provider therefore links two stages of the same customer relationship that are usually handled by unrelated companies. The personal history between Affinity's founder and AX Aero's chair at ExecuJet suggests the arrangement rests on an existing working relationship rather than a cold commercial approach.
The simulator line-up at the planned Schiphol-area academy, Challenger 350/3500 and Challenger 650, points to a different segment from Affinity's own Global-focused sales book, so the two businesses overlap in customer base more than in aircraft type. The stated academy opening in Q1 2027 coincides with the year Affinity says it will widen its activities, which gives the next dated milestone: whether the academy opens on that schedule with the UK CAA-certified devices described.
