On Air Fitness Targets 145 Clubs by End of 2026

On Air Fitness Targets 145 Clubs by End of 2026

French fitness franchise On Air Fitness is moving fast. With two new club openings scheduled for August 2026 and a target of 145 total locations by year-end, founder Jacques Bolle is executing one of the more deliberate mid-market gym expansions currently underway in continental Europe. The brand is already operating across Morocco, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Belgium is next. And the August slate includes a club in Catalonia and another in Trelissac, near Périgueux in the Dordogne region of southwestern France.

That geographic spread tells you something important about how On Air Fitness is thinking about growth. This isn't a brand chasing the same dense urban corridors every other operator is fighting over. It's building a network that stretches into secondary and tertiary markets, crosses national borders, and bets on a specific kind of member experience to hold it all together.

Two August Openings, One Clear Signal

The Catalonia opening extends On Air's footprint in Spain, a market where the brand has already demonstrated it can operate successfully. The Trelissac opening is the more revealing move. Périgueux is a mid-sized French city with roughly 30,000 residents. It's not Paris, Lyon, or Bordeaux. It doesn't have the foot traffic density or the commuter volume that typically drives premium gym membership sales.

What it does have is lower real estate costs, a less saturated competitive landscape, and a population that's increasingly health-conscious but underserved by quality fitness infrastructure. On Air is reading that opportunity correctly. By taking over an existing location in Trelissac rather than building from scratch in a saturated market, the brand absorbs less risk while establishing a presence in a territory where it can build genuine loyalty.

This is the same logic that has pushed U.S. operators to expand aggressively into suburban and exurban markets. When prime urban real estate costs make unit economics difficult, brands that have figured out how to deliver a compelling member experience without depending on metro density have a structural advantage.

What "Immersive Experience" Actually Means at Scale

On Air Fitness positions itself squarely in the mid-market segment, but it doesn't compete primarily on price. The brand's differentiation strategy is built around in-club experience design: the way the space feels, the programming structure, the atmosphere members walk into when they show up to train.

That positioning mirrors what's happening at the upper end of the U.S. market. EoS Lux has been building a model that layers premium environment onto accessible pricing to capture members who want more than a basic box gym but don't want to pay $200 a month for it. Crunch applied similar thinking when it rolled out its Pilates programming, using a specific modality as an experience anchor rather than competing solely on equipment or price per square foot.

The underlying insight is consistent: in a market where budget operators have made low prices a commodity, the brands that grow sustainably are the ones that make members feel something when they walk through the door. That's harder to replicate than a price point, and it's significantly harder for a competitor to undercut.

For members, this matters because the quality of your training environment has a real effect on consistency. If you're evaluating where to train, the experience inside the club, not just the membership fee, is worth weighing carefully. Your first fitness consultation with a trainer at any facility should include a walkthrough of the space and an honest conversation about what the programming model actually delivers.

The Multi-Country Push: Morocco, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium

Operating across five countries simultaneously at the mid-market level is genuinely difficult. Each market has different regulatory requirements, different consumer expectations around fitness culture, and different competitive dynamics. The fact that On Air Fitness is managing that complexity while still accelerating its opening cadence suggests the franchise model is more systematized than the brand's public profile might indicate.

Morocco is particularly interesting. North Africa is an underpenetrated fitness market relative to its population size and urbanization rate. Gym membership penetration in the region remains well below Western European averages, which means the growth runway is long for operators who establish early brand recognition. On Air's presence there isn't just a geographic footnote. It's a positioning move in a market that's likely to grow significantly over the next decade.

Belgium as the next pipeline market fits the broader European rollout logic. It's dense, affluent, and sits at the intersection of French and Dutch-speaking fitness culture, giving a French-origin brand like On Air a natural linguistic and cultural entry point.

This kind of multi-market diversification also reduces the brand's exposure to any single country's economic cycle. If one market slows down, the network as a whole absorbs the impact rather than concentrating it. That's not a small thing for a franchise system trying to reach 145 locations without overextending its operational infrastructure.

Secondary Markets as a Growth Strategy, Not a Fallback

The Trelissac opening is worth examining as a deliberate strategic choice rather than a gap-fill. On Air Fitness isn't opening in secondary markets because it can't compete in Paris. It's opening there because the unit economics are better, the competitive pressure is lower, and the brand experience can anchor membership retention in ways that pure price competition can't.

In the U.S., the same dynamic has played out across multiple fitness cycles. Brands that cracked suburban and secondary-city markets, rather than concentrating exclusively on New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, often built more durable networks. The overhead is manageable, the member churn is lower because there are fewer alternatives, and the brand becomes genuinely embedded in the local community.

For franchise operators evaluating models right now, On Air's trajectory offers a useful data point. Experience-led differentiation doesn't erode when you leave a major metro. If anything, it strengthens, because you're not fighting fifteen other operators for the same members. You're the option that delivers something meaningfully better than what existed before.

The programming substance matters too. Members in these markets are looking for the same things members everywhere are looking for: effective training, good coaching, and a space that supports the kind of consistent effort that actually produces results. There's solid research behind combining cardio and strength training as the most effective general fitness approach, and clubs that build their programming around that evidence base rather than chasing trend-driven formats tend to hold members longer.

What the On Air Model Tells Operators About Franchise Differentiation

If you're an operator or investor looking at gym franchise models in 2026, the On Air expansion illustrates a few things worth internalizing.

• Experience design is a moat. Price competition commoditizes the product. Environment and atmosphere are significantly harder to copy, especially at scale.
• Secondary markets are undervalued. The barriers to entry are lower, the competitive density is thinner, and a strong brand can establish durable loyalty faster than it can in a saturated metro.
• International diversification compounds over time. Building a network across multiple countries early creates optionality. If one market tightens, the system doesn't collapse. It adapts.
• Franchisee selection determines execution quality. At 145 locations across multiple countries, the central brand can set standards, but the member experience is ultimately delivered by local operators. Getting that selection and training process right is what separates a brand that scales from one that fragments.

The connected fitness and wearable tech sectors are also moving fast enough that any gym network targeting growth through 2026 and beyond needs to think about how its in-club experience integrates with what members are tracking outside the club. Wearable tech investment hit $1.52 billion in 2026 so far, and that capital is flowing into products that members will bring with them when they walk into any club, including On Air's.

The Broader Picture for Mid-Market Gym Brands

On Air Fitness is not the only mid-market brand accelerating right now, but its combination of geographic spread, secondary market targeting, and experience-led positioning makes it one of the more coherent case studies available. It's not chasing the luxury segment. It's not racing to the bottom on price. It's building a network that bets on the quality of the in-club moment as the primary driver of retention and word-of-mouth growth.

That bet is well-supported by what we know about why people actually stick with gym memberships. Motivation and consistency are downstream of environment and community as much as they are of programming content. Members who feel genuinely good about the space they train in show up more often. Members who show up more often get results. Members who get results stay and refer.

The science backs up the value of what these clubs are trying to deliver. Research consistently links regular strength training to reduced risk of premature death, improved metabolic health, and measurable benefits that compound over decades. Harvard research on strength training and longevity has made clear that the habits people build in places like these have consequences far beyond aesthetics. And for members over 40 specifically, the anti-aging effects of consistent resistance training are among the most well-documented interventions available.

When a brand builds its clubs in a way that makes those habits easier to form and maintain, it's not just making a business decision. It's creating real, measurable value for the people walking through the door. On Air Fitness, with 145 locations in its sights and a clear positioning strategy, seems to understand that. The question now is whether the execution at each new opening holds the standard the brand is promising.