A company convicted in Spain’s landmark aerial firefighting scandal held contracts worth over €32 million with Cyprus’s Forestry Department, Phileleftheros can reveal.
The firm — known as AVIALSA T-35 before renaming itself Titan Fire Fighting Company S.L. in 2019 — was among those banned from public contracts by Spain’s National Court (Audiencia Nacional) in February 2025, following a ruling that found a cartel had rigged firefighting aviation tenders for nearly two decades. Tender documents examined by Phileleftheros confirm the two companies are one and the same entity, sharing the same VAT number.
The finding emerges from a criminal investigation already under way in Cyprus, launched in 2024 following an internal inquiry by the Agriculture Ministry ordered by Minister Maria Panayiotou. That investigation centres on Department of Forests contracts for aerial firefighting services, with a Department of Forests official named as the chief suspect.
€32 million in four years
Records examined by Phileleftheros show that in four years alone, contracts totalling €32,194,500 were awarded to the company. Those contracts are now at the centre of the ongoing criminal proceedings.
Among the contracts under scrutiny is one awarded to Titan Fire Fighting Company S.L. in 2024, worth several million euros, for aerial firefighting services.
Department of Forests tender documents confirm the link between the two company names. In a 2020 procurement process, Titan submitted a letter stating it was the same legal entity as AVIALSA T-35 S.L., renamed in 2019, with its VAT number unchanged. The contracting authority verified this against official translated documents submitted on February 27, 2020, confirming that AVIALSA T-35 S.L. had been renamed Titan Fire Fighting Company S.L. on July 24, 2019.
Earlier contracts
Titan Fire Fighting Company S.L. also won earlier Department of Forests contracts. In a 2022 tender for the lease of two firefighting aircraft and related services, the contract was awarded to the company despite reservations recorded in the evaluation process. Assessors noted the bid exceeded the Department of Forests’ own cost estimate by 64.78%, a gap that widened to 147% when analysed on a per-pilot basis, as the company had fewer pilots than the tender required. The contract was nonetheless awarded.
Separately, a payment record found by Phileleftheros shows the Department of Forests paid AVIALSA €61,630 under the description “Scholarships and Training Abroad.”
Spain conviction
In February 2025, Spain’s National Court convicted 12 defendants for operating a cartel in public firefighting aviation contracts between 2001 and 2018. Sentences ranged from six months to two years and three months. Among those convicted was the former government representative to the Autonomous Community of Valencia, identified in court documents as Serafín C., who received a sentence of one year and nine months for sustained bribery, preferential negotiation, embezzlement, and falsification of official documents.
The court imposed — for the first time — a ban on public contract awards against several companies, including Avialsa T-35.
An Avialsa executive played a significant role in exposing the cartel. According to the court ruling, the defendant identified in proceedings as Francisco A.E. was granted an exemption after his defence argued he had reported the cartel’s existence, naming the individuals and companies involved — including himself — and submitted around 500 documents. These included evidence of criminal coordination for price-fixing and market-sharing in firefighting aircraft tenders. The court noted he had acknowledged during trial that he was a “leading figure” at Avialsa and accepted his role in the cartel.
Investigative outlet datajournalists.co.uk, reporting on the case, described a network of aircraft sales and leasing companies that had formed a cartel to divide contracts among themselves — influencing and bribing public officials and gaining direct access to the Interior Ministry to secure awards for Air Tractor aircraft (models AT-502, AT-802, and amphibious variants) for aerial firefighting services, without competition and with controlled pricing. The outlet reported the scheme ran for 15 years, and cited the Spanish Economic Prosecutor’s estimate of total damage to the Spanish state at €151,585,382.22. The case is known in Spain as the cartel del fuego — the fire cartel.
Cyprus investigation
As Phileleftheros has previously reported, the Cyprus police investigation into Department of Forests firefighting contracts focuses on three department officials. Investigators found that all three were indirectly connected to companies that received public funds. In one case, a single company accumulated contract awards totalling €32,194,500. Investigators also identified relatives of the officials under scrutiny behind companies that received significant state contracts.