Aviation runs in the family – Unlox now invests SEK 50 million in Jonair

The investment will enable Jonair to continue growing while keeping one of northern Sweden’s more established airlines under regional ownership.

Jonair was founded in 1972 and is now based at Umeå Airport. Its operations include business and charter flights, publicly procured scheduled services, helicopter services, air ambulance flights and specialist transport.

The company also plays an important role in regional air transport. Since 2015, Jonair has operated several of the Swedish Transport Administration’s procured air routes. Today, these include Luleå–Pajala, Umeå–Östersund, Torsby–Hagfors–Arlanda and Sveg–Mora–Arlanda.

The Umeå–Östersund route in particular has been under discussion this year. Travel News reported this spring on Umeå Municipality’s concerns over a possible suspension of the route, which the municipality describes as important for, among other things, medical travel, skills provision and the regional labour market. Jonair operates the route with around 20 departures a week.

At the same time, Jonair has grown into a business with annual revenue of more than SEK 100 million. The company was profitable in 2025.

An important part of its strategy has been to own its aircraft rather than lease them. According to the company, this has contributed to profitability while also providing control over its own fleet.

Unlox will now contribute capital and expertise in the next phase of growth.

- For us, Jonair is more than a financial investment. Aviation holds together a region where distances are real and alternatives are few. We are entering the partnership with a long-term ownership perspective, to support Jonair and Mattias on their continued journey and help develop our northern region, says Markus Olsson, founder and CEO of Unlox.

Mattias Eriksson sees the new owner as a way of giving the company additional strength ahead of its next phase.

- We have built Jonair step by step over more than fifty years. We are now entering a phase where I see great benefit in having a partner that combines long-term commitment, expertise and capital, and that is based locally in Norrland, he says.

The family connection to aviation

For Unlox, the investment also has a personal dimension.

Markus Olsson's grandfather, Gunnar Olsson, was one of the founders of the airline Norrlandsflyg in Storuman in 1955. Eight years later, he died in an air accident near the Norwegian border.

His son, Krister Olsson, was 19 at the time and had obtained his pilot's licence at the age of 17, with the ambition of becoming a pilot. After the accident, he instead took over the family's businesses – the foundation of today's Unlox.

- Aviation runs in the family, for better and worse. Grandfather built an airline and it cost him his life. Dad would have become a pilot if the accident had not intervened. Sixty years later, becoming an owner in an airline in northern Sweden was not something we planned. But it means something, says Markus Olsson.

Unlox is based in Umeå and invests in companies with strong local roots in northern Sweden. The company currently has 25 active portfolio companies and has completed eleven exits.

For Jonair, the plan is to continue expanding its operations and help ensure that air travel remains an option in parts of Sweden where distances are great and other transport alternatives are limited.

Merge acted as adviser to Jonair in the transaction.