The aerospace industry in Catalonia: an (open) overview
This is a post I had wanted to do for quite a long time, since in the last few years I have had the chance to interact professionally with some of the companies which are behind the relatively recent emergence of a (still) small but globally competitive aerospace cluster in Catalonia, and most particularly around the city of Barcelona.
While Catalonia has a strong industrial tradition, aerospace has never been one of its top sectors. That had long been the case, and at some point it looked as if even if its proximity (300 km as the crow flies) to Toulouse, one of the world’s largest aerospace industry's clusters, wouldn’t change that.
The fact that, for most of its history, the aerospace industry has been (and it still is to a large degree!) driven by distant (from a Catalan point of view) governments and state-owned (or state-influenced) companies hasn't helped either.
But in recent years, coinciding with a general outburst of private entrepreneurial energy in the aviation sector (just check the entrepreneurial stories on The Allplane Podcast for some examples), a nascent aerospace ecosystem has been emerging in Catalonia with global ambitions.
The idea behind this post is to have some sort of open industry-tracker which lists the aviation and aerospace companies which are either based in Catalonia or have major corporate functions there (HQ-level or similar). Also, while I understand educational establishments and governmental institutions play a major role in any industry ecosystem, I decided to focus only on private and commercial ventures here.
Like all lists that are manually curated, it may not be perfect, but I hope it would be a useful repository for all those that are interested in this space!
I am also well aware that organizing the companies in categories is subject to a certain degree of subjectivity, since some companies may not fit in any single category in particular or may be difficult to categorize perfectly.
So, feel free to contact me with any comments or suggestions, for example, if you know of companies that should be in this list and aren’t!
Airlines
Vueling
If you travel often in Western Europe, the low cost airline of the IAG group doesn’t need much of an introduction. Vueling has, actually, its roots in Barcelona and keeps its HQ in the Catalan capital to this day. From a small startup, it was acquired by IAG in 2012 and has since grown to become one of Europe’s major budget carriers.
As of 2026, it operates a fleet of over 130 aircraft and it is the largest airline by passenger numbers at Barcelona airport. It also operates several other bases throughout Europe.
LEVEL
Another airline of the IAG group, unlike Vueling, which was acquired, LEVEL was created from scratch within the IAG group. Its original, implicit, purpose was to compete in the long-haul, low-cost market with Norwegian, which at the time was attempting to set up one of its long-haul bases in Barcelona.
Norwegian ended up withdrawing from the long-haul, but LEVEL has remained, consolidating its presence in Barcelona, from where it flies to a handful of destinations in North and South America with a fleet of A330 aircraft. In 2024, LEVEL reveived its own, independent AOC (until then, while commercially distinct, it was operating under Iberia’s AOC).
Volotea
Curiously enough, most Barcelonians are relatively unfamiliar with yet another of the city’s airlines. The very simple reason for this is that, while it has always been based in the city, for many years after its launch, Volotea did not operate a single flight out of Barcelona.
Founded by the same people that launched Vueling a few years prior, Volotea was conceived to connect Europe’s small and medium sized cities and has been successful at this, becoming a major player in the French, Italian and Spanish regional travel market.
Btw, we were one of the first to report about the launch of Volotea!
If interested in the story of Volotea (which, btw, has since started operating in Barcelona too!), check out this AeroTime Executive Spotlight interview I did with its founder, Carlos Muñoz.
Software and digital systems for airlines
Immfly
One of the world’s leaders in inflight entertainment and retail onboard systems. Immfly is the brainchild of Jimmy Martinez von Korff and Peblo Linz. It started as a provider of lightweight, bring-your-own-device (BYOD) inflight entertainment systems, which allow airline passengers access to movies, series, maps and other content, even in aircraft that are not connected to the internet.
Immfly has since grown considerably, diversified its offering to add inflight connectivity options, retail on board solutions and other digital offerings for airlines. It has also received investment from Boeing and become one of the players of note in this space worldwide.
Full disclosure: I worked as a consultant on projects with Immfly for a number of years.
SITA
SITA is one of the world’s largest players when it comes to digital solutions for the air travel industry. Its portfolio is pretty broad and it ranges from software to help aircraft navigate more efficiently or to communicate with air traffic control, all the way to contactless and biometric security solutions for airports.
SITA is, in fact, it is a proper multinational corporation with offices in Singapore, Geneva and other locations across the globe, but since 2020 Barcelona has become one of its major nodes. SITA’s presence in Barcelona has since continued to grow and, as of 2025, a significant number of products and functions are managed in Barcelona. So, while it was not founded or launched in Barcelona, I think it is a player of note in the city’s aerospace technology ecosystem.
Btw, we did a series of four podcast episodes in partneship with SITA in which we explained the different solutions and technologies the company offers to the airline industry.
FLYR (Newshore)
FLYR is one of the rising stars in the global airline software landscape. Started in California by Alexander Mans (whom I featured in this CNN piece about airline pricing systems back in 2017 ), FLYR recently made headlines as it was selected to design the digital infrastructure for the new up and coming Saudi flag carrier Riyadh Air.
In 2022 FLYR acquired Barcelona-based, Newshore, one of the few tech consultancy firms in the world specializing in the development, implementation and integration of the Navitaire passenger service system (PSS), now owned by Amadeus, which is a powerful digital platform many airlines use to manage their bookings and other revenue functions. Newshore had a particularly strong footprint in the low-cost airline industry, since Navitaire was a leading platform serving this segment of the market.
After the acquisition, Newshore has rebranded taken on new functions in alignment with FLYR’s own product and customer portfolio.
Full disclosure: I worked as a consultant on projects for Newshore prior to its acquisition by FLYR
Caravelo
The market leader in airline subscription solutions worldwide, powering this service for several major carriers such as Wizz Air and Volaris (Mexico). This is basically the software that allows airlines to offer unlimited (or a large of) trips in exchange for a fixed fee. This is an approach to passenger loyalty that has some interesting marketing implications for airlines, as very thoroughly explained in this post by one of the Caravelo’s founders, JoseLuis Vilar, who is also a prolific writer online.
I am also happy to report that I met JoseLuis and his co-founder, Iñaki Uriz, quite a few years ago when Caravelo was a small startup with a totally different business model, based on allowing airlines to increase yield by re-bidding for tickets they had already sold in order to resell them at a higher price.
Accelya
Accelya is little known to the general public, but it is a giant of airline retailing, providing distribution software to some 200 airlines worldwide with a staff of several thousand at several sites around the world.
Accelya holds around half of the global NDC (New Distribution Capability) market, which is a new way for airlines to distribute their inventory through agents, replacing the legacy GDS systems that offer limited flexibility to generate revenue via ancillary services.
The company has actually been around since the 1970s, with its business model evolving along with airline distribution technology. It has changed hands quite a few times, with several private equity deals along the way, with Vista Equity Partners being the latest of them (as of April 2026).
The official headquarters of the company is in Barcelona, although it is not clear to me how much of a real footprint it has in the Catalan capital.
Airplane.solutions
This is a software company providing cloud-based solutions that help airlines manage their pricing, distribution and digital retailing capabilities. It was supported in its early stages by Airbus BizLab startup incubator.
FreightOS
FreightOs was started by Zvi Schreiber with the idea of creating the first fully digital global platform for the air cargo industry, where the different operators could contract their shipments with each other seamlessly (“the Booking.com of air freight” as Zvi explained in the Allplane Podcast episode we recorded back in 2022. In the course of this process, FreightOS acquired another Barcelona-based startup called WebCargo, a move which was instrumental in accelerating its growth.
Admyral
This software startup is focused on the development of systems for the optimization of manufacturing and operational processes.
This is something with applications in many fields, but, given the professional background of its founder, Embry-Riddle University graduate and former Lufthansa Systems consultant Joan Sanmartí, Admyral has the aerospace industry as its main focus area.
Paximizer
Paximizer is a software company based in Barcelona and Kazakhstan. It uses AI to help airlines and other travel operators dig insights from their own customers’ data and derive additional revenue streams from it.
Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) & Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)
Singular Aircraft
Based in Cornellà and backed by a prominent Barcelona-based industrialist, Singular Aircraft is developing unmanned aerial systems for a variety of missions, such as firefighting and defense. Its flagship and most advanced product is a large drone called Flyox, which is already undergoing tests on the ground.
Grasshoper Air Mobility
https://www.grasshopperairmobility.com
The brainchild of German entrepreneur Jakob Saalfrank, this startup is developing an electric unmanned cargo drone for logistic operators.
Bold
Bold is a textbook story of entrepeneurial growth. Started by Catalan engineer Bernat Carreras in this apartment, in the course of five years, Bold has grown into a global player in the field of high performance batteries for mobility applications. And while land systems, including Formula E cars, account for a significant part of its business, aerospace applications, particularly for drones and eVTOLs, are playing an increasing role in the business mix.
Bold’s CCO, Gerard Torres, was a guest of the Allplane Podcast, so tune in to learn more about this very dynamic company operating at the cutting edge of battery technology.
Barcelona Drone Center
https://www.barcelonadronecenter.com
This company has been in business since the early days of the drone revolution. As its name implies, it provides testing services for developers of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) at its testing ground in Moià, in central Catalonia about an hour drive from Barcelona.
Drone Port EU
Drone Port EU provides testing facilities, advisory services and training to manufacturers, operators, and researchers working on the development of unmanned aerial systems (UAS). It has a test range in the Cerdanya county, in the Catalan Pyrenees.
UAVHE
This company, based in Montcada i Reixach, near Barcelona, develops hybrids engines for commercial drones.
Airport Services
Aeroports de Catalunya
This is the airport management firm of the Catalan Government. While Catalonia’s three largest airports (Barcelona, Girona and Reus) are managed by Spanish operator AENA, Aeroports de Catalunya has under its wing two smaller airports: Lleida-Alguaire (ILD) and La Seu d’Urgell-Andorra (LEU).
These two are, obviously, very small airports when it comes to passenger activity. However, over the last few years, Lleida-Alguaire airport has diversified its activity becoming primarily an industrial airport, with MRO, testing and educational-training activities. For example, it is a testing site for Chinese eVTOL developer EHang and has acted also as a storage airport in moments of low industry demand, as I explained in this CNN article.
You can learn more about the different activities that take place at these airports by listening to the podcast we did together with the director of Aeroports de Catalunya, Jordi Candela.
ADELTE
Although it has been in business for over six decades, Adelte became better known to the general public after CEO and major shareholder, Josep Maria Bartomeu, became president of FC Barcelona (a position he held between 2014 and 2020). Adelte makes passenger boarding bridges and ground support equipment (GSE) for airports and it defines itself as “the boarding company”.
Buildair
This company, a spin-off the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, makes large inflatable hangars which can be installed in a very short period of time. Some of its largest hangars, like the one it installed at King Abdulaziz International Airport, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, are large enough to fit a B787 or an A330 inside and the technology could potentially be scaled to fit in an A380, as well.
To learn more about Buildair’s inflatable hangars, you can also check this piece about this construction material and technology that I published on CNN.
Consulting
FLARE Aviation Consulting
A boutique consultancy firm offering strategic and operational advice to commercial aviation operators and airports around the world.
ALG Global
Currently part of the Spanish defense and technology group Indra, ALG has several decades of track record advising customers in the commercial aviation and logistics sector.
GPA
Launched as a spin-off of Barcelona’s route development committee, an initiative of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce to attract new operators to Barcelona Airport, GPA has grown to offer its know-how to airports, destinations, airlines and logistic operators around the world. It has a particularly strong air cargo practice.
DMD Solutions
Based in Barcelona, DMD is an aerospace engineering consultancy specializing in safety, reliability, and systems engineering. It works mostly with companies in general aviation, unmanned aerial systems and defense.
Industrials
Compoxi
Based in Girona, Compoxi is a manufacturer of advanced composite materials for the aviation and space industries.
Space Technology
Airbus GeoTech
https://space-solutions.airbus.com
This Airbus subsidiary, which is dedicated to geospatial data technology, is based in Barcelona. Airbus GeoTech collects data from satellites observing the Earth and transforms them into actionable insights, for example, by elaborating 2D and 3D maps tracking specific parameters which may be of interest to different types of companies.
Sateliot
Sateliot aims to provide broadband connectivity through a LEO satellite constellation using 5G technology. Under this concept, Sateliot sells broadband capacity wholesale to mobile network operators, with its satellites fulfilling the same function than cellphone towers do on the ground. As of April 2026 Sateliot’s satellite network was still in single digits, though it has plans to keep expanding it.
Aistech Space
The focus of Aistech Space is thermal space imagery. This company, based in Sant Cugat del Vallès, near Barcelona, is pioneer in the development of high-resolution thermal infrared (TIR) telescopes for small satellites. Aistech Space also operates a network of small LEO CubeSat satellites which provide data with applications in aeras such as agriculture, hydrology and security.
SENER
Although originally based in the Bilbao area, this aerospace engineering company has part of its corporate functions in the Barcelona area. Sener produces systems for space and defense applications
GTD
GTD develops software and systems for a number of industries, but space is one of its core areas. It makes, for example, flight control software for Ariane launchers as well as control systems for a number of satellites.
Pangea Propulsion
https://www.pangeapropulsion.com
Startup developing space launch systems. In particular, Pangea Propulsion has been working on a methane-fueled aerospike rocket engine called “Arcos”. In March 2025, Pangea Propulsion raised a €23 million funding round. It has also received European funds through its participation in the “Game-Changing Innovation for European Launchers Prize”.
SLIMOP Space
SLIMOP Space is based the campus of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) in Castelldefels and it designs and manufactures lightweight, high-resolution telescopes for small and nano satellites.
Zero2Infinity
This startup has developed a rather unique system to take people to suborbital altitudes in a specially-designed balloon. In addition to its original application for space tourism, in tune with the times, Zero2Infinity has also been developing defense applications.
