Aero NextGen today confirmed that its Solution Finder Hub — the aviation industry’s first dedicated platform for matching operators to vetted software and consulting providers — is free for every aviation company, with no fee to search, shortlist, or connect. The milestone comes as more than 175 aviation companies have already used the platform to find the right software, and as it spans 60+ solution categories and a vetted network of 60+ solution providers, and growing.

The decision removes the single largest barrier to digital transformation in aviation: the cost and risk of choosing the wrong system. Aero NextGen is making the entire matching layer free for buyers so that MROs, airlines, OEMs, lessors, parts traders, distributors, FBOs, CAMOs, charter and cargo operators, and airports can move faster on the technology decisions that determine turnaround time, compliance, and cash flow.

Aviation is growing faster than it is modernizing

The industry is expanding on every axis. Global air traffic is set to roughly double over the next two decades, growing about 4.7% a year through 2043, and the world fleet is projected to nearly double — from about 24,700 aircraft at the end of 2024 to more than 49,000 by 2044 — according to IATA and Airbus forecasts. Industry revenues have already passed $1 trillion. At the same time, North America alone faces a shortfall of roughly 40,000 aviation mechanics by 2028. More aircraft, more flights, and fewer people to maintain them point to the same answer: better software, adopted faster.

Yet the industry’s adoption record lags its growth. Across aviation, digital transformation is still early — Capgemini reports that only 6% of MROs have integrated digital tools at scale, citing fragmented data, legacy infrastructure, and a shortage of skilled personnel. Critical information stays trapped in disconnected systems across maintenance, flight operations, supply chain, and finance. And when companies do try to modernize, the selection process itself is where value is lost — ERP implementation failures average 27% in cost overruns, and the wrong system can mean millions lost to prolonged rollouts, extended training, weak support, and incompatibility with existing systems.

The forward move is not “buy software.” It is choose correctly the first time. That is the problem Aero NextGen was built to solve.

What the Solution Finder Hub is

The Solution Finder Hub is a free aviation software and consulting marketplace that maps an operator’s real requirements to the providers built for them. Instead of a generic directory, it works as a matching engine across the capabilities aviation teams actually buy — work order management, task card management, planning and scheduling, inventory and bill of materials, RFQ/RFP management, billing and invoicing, compliance and warranty management, multi-currency accounting, and dozens more.

The Hub spans every software and consulting category in aviation. It currently covers 60+ solution categories and a vetted network of 60+ solution providers, both growing as new vendors are onboarded. It ranges from implementation partners to MRO software, aviation ERP software, business analytics, drone inspection, crew management, and flight operations

— across every sector, from commercial to military and defense, helicopters and drones to UAM and business aviation. Each provider is vetted, and each is presented against the same capability framework so buyers compare like for like — not marketing claim against marketing claim.

How an operator uses it — in three minutes

The entry point is the Solution Finder Quiz. An operator answers a short set of questions about their type of operation, size, region, and the workflows that matter most. The platform then auto-filters more than 60 aviation solutions down to a shortlist matched to those inputs. The process is deliberately simple:

1. Answer the quiz — operation type, size, region, and priority workflows.
2. Receive a matched shortlist — only the providers that fit your requirements, drawn from 60+ vetted solutions.
3. Compare and connect — review providers side by side on a shared capability framework, then connect directly.

There is no cost to the buyer at any step, and no obligation. The shortlist is built around the operator’s needs, not around who paid for placement.

How today’s selection process actually works — and why it fails

For most aviation companies, selecting software still means starting from zero. A team searches generic ERP directories that were never built for aviation, sits through a series of vendor-led demos, and tries to translate sales decks into a real capability comparison. Requirements get scoped against whatever the last salesperson emphasized. Aviation-specific needs — airworthiness compliance, task cards, PBH and consignment, loan and borrow, multi-currency parts trading — are often discovered late, after a shortlist has already formed around the wrong criteria.

The result is predictable: long evaluation cycles, decisions made on incomplete information, and a meaningful share of projects that overrun or stall. Generic software is not built for aviation’s regulatory and operational reality, and the cost of finding that out after signing is measured in months and millions.

Larger operators often pay consulting firms to run a formal RFP and down-selection — a process that can take several months and cost six or seven figures to consolidate a stack of spreadsheets into a single decision, and one the industry widely acknowledges carries its own bias. Smaller aviation companies rarely have the budget for that. The Solution Finder Hub puts the same structured, requirement-matched evaluation in reach of every operator, at no cost.

How Aero NextGen disrupts it

Aero NextGen replaces the generic, vendor-led process with a neutral, aviation-specific matching layer:

• Aviation-only, by design. Every provider is evaluated against the workflows aviation teams run — not repackaged from a horizontal software list.
• Vetted supply. The 60+ providers on the platform are screened before they reach a buyer’s shortlist, and the network is growing.
• Like-for-like comparison. A shared capability framework lets operators compare providers on the same terms instead of competing sales narratives.
• Free for buyers. The matching layer carries no cost to the aviation company, removing the financial risk from the first and most important step.
• Built on real demand. 175+ aviation companies have already used the platform to connect with the right software, giving Aero NextGen a working view of what the market needs and which solutions deliver.

The shift is straightforward. The industry no longer has to choose software in the dark. It can start every evaluation from a vetted, requirement-matched shortlist — and reserve its time for the decision, not the search.

The Aero NextGen take

Aviation runs on precision everywhere except in how it buys its own technology. Aero NextGen’s position is that the matching layer between an operator and its software should be neutral, aviation-specific, and free — because the cost of a wrong system is already high enough without charging companies to look.

“The industry has spent years treating software selection as a cost of doing business. We treat it as the decision that determines whether digital transformation succeeds. We made the Solution Finder Hub free for every aviation company because the right match should never be gated behind a fee — 175 companies in, the data is clear that neutral matching gets operators to the right solution faster than any sales cycle.”

— Monica Badra, Founder & CEO, Aero NextGen

Availability

The Solution Finder Hub and the Solution Finder Quiz are live now and free for all aviation companies at aero-nextgen.com. Solution providers seeking to be listed and vetted can apply at aero-nextgen.com/for-vendors.