The company that on the basis of a court decision of the National Court of Spain (2025) had a leading role in the international scandal with the forest firefighting cartel ("Cartel del Fuego"), maintains a contract worth tens of millions of euros with the Department of Forests.
This is a valid contract awarded to Titan Firefighting Company SL (formerly Avialsa) and provides for the lease of four aircraft for €25 million. It was awarded in the summer of 2024 and lasts until 2026, while there is a prospect of its renewal until 2028.
The circumstance that cannot go unnoticed is that it has to do with the role of an officer of the Department of Forests. According to tender documents examined by "F", it appears that at the end of the spring of 2024, the officer of the Department of Forests, who is now the main suspect in the Cypriot scandal with the aerial means of forest firefighting, was asked to give an opinion on the contract in question.
The Cyprus scandal
He is a well-known official of the Department of Forests, who is being criminally investigated by the TAE of the Police Headquarters for contracts over €32 million, with which a Cypriot company that was in the interests of his mother is connected.
In a case file, the content of which is known to "F", it is recorded that Titan Firefighting Company SL was represented in Cyprus by a company, which had the mother of the officer in question as a shareholder from 2012 until 2024.
In fact, when TAE investigators went to the offices of this Cypriot corporate entity as part of their investigation, the specific officer of the Department of Forests was also at the premises. Apparently, in order not to be noticed, he jumped from the balcony of the building and suffered a broken leg.
In addition, the investigators in the context of a court proceeding concerning the case under investigation against the said officer of the Department of Forests, expressed the position that all tenders prepared by his unit and related to aircraft rental, ended up with the company Titan.
What he said about Titan's prices
Regarding the contract in question amounting to €25 million, the official in question was asked to give an opinion to the Tender Committee of the tender. Although Titan's bid had been deemed high, however, the officer in question, who is now the main suspect in the Cyprus scandal, had submitted the following positions to the Bidding Board via teleconference:
>> When asked about the first part of the contract and the fact that Titan's bid is 38% higher than the Department of Forests' cost estimate, he replied that this "is justified". He explained that it concerns the rental of aircraft for a period of six months, as well as that the staff and aircraft "will come from Australia, compared to previous years that came from Spain".
>> For the second part of the contract, Titan's bid was 27% higher than the cost estimate. When asked to state why this was happening, the official attributed the discrepancy between Titan's cost estimate and bid to the fact that "a period for aircraft rental and pilot services was set at five months, in order to attract interested parties from the Southern Hemisphere, where it is winter during the summer season of Cyprus".
>> Answering a question from the Tender Council whether the bid prices are comparable to other European countries, he replied that in general the prices are at the same levels.
After that, the Bidding Board awarded the tender to Titan. It should be noted that this tender was put under the microscope of the TAE Headquarters and was the one that led them to the conclusion that Titan was connected to the Cypriot company owned by the mother of the officer of the Department of Forests. The Cypriot company in question had been given as a point of contact for Titan...
And officially active
The contract remains active, as evidenced by officially published data. In case of termination for any reason, it would be placed in the Register of Terminated Contracts which is updated and published on the official website of the General Accounting Office of the Republic. Titan, however, is not listed in the relevant list.
Snapshot from the trial for the Cartel del Fuego in Spain.The main "player" is the current Titan, formerly Avialsa - A loss of €150 million in Spain
The phrase "Cartel Del Fuego" (the fire cartel) was established for the aerial firefighting scandal that caused a sensation internationally. Aircraft sales and leasing companies formed a circuit. As it emerged through a decision of a Spanish Court, they influenced public officials and having direct access to the Ministry of the Interior, they divided the contracts in order to achieve the award of contracts for the sale or lease of Air Tractor aircraft in various versions (AT-502, AT-802, amphibians, etc.) for the provision of aerial forest firefighting services, without competition and controlling prices.
As announced in February 2025, the National Court of Spain (Audiencia Nacional) sentenced to sentences ranging from two years and three months to six months in prison, 12 defendants for forming a cartel in the public procurement of the air navigation sector to extinguish fires between 2001 and 2018.
In its ruling (2025), the Court imposed for the first time a nine-month ban on contracts with the State to a number of companies including Avialsa T35, now Titan Firefighting Company S.L., which had and still has contracts with the Department of Forests.
An executive of Avialsa (now Titan) played an important role in the revelation of the cartel, according to the Court's verdict. The company official in question denounced a series of illegal acts by a group of companies. The Spanish state's initial calculation of damage over a 15-year period was estimated at more than €150 million.
Nothing is left in the drawer, says the minister
The Cypriot scandal with the aerial means of forest firefighting came to light after an investigation by the Ministry of Agriculture into the contracts of the Department of Forests from 2017 to 2024. The minister, Maria Panagiotou, had received a complaint about strange practices in a competition of the Department of Forests and in July 2024 gave instructions to conduct an administrative investigation. The investigation was completed in December of the same year and its contents were subsequently forwarded to the Attorney General.
"F" contacted the Minister of Agriculture, asking her for comment on the correlation of the Cyprus scandal with the "Cartel del Fuego". Ms. Panagiotou told us: "Given that the case is still ongoing, it would not be right to say anything about the substance of the matter. However, I would like to emphasize something, as a basic principle: All the complaints submitted to me, for a host of issues, have never and under no circumstances remained and do not remain in the drawer.
When they are submitted, we have an obligation to evaluate them, investigate them and, where relevant information emerges, to forward them to the competent authorities for their own actions. This is exactly what happened in this case as well. Responding to every complaint is not an option, but it is our duty and institutional obligation. It is a key pillar of the responsible governance we apply and the transparency we owe to citizens."
