Hyperion Fund's Gestair Maintenance Sole Remaining Bidder for Spanish Air Force Multi-Aircraft Contract After Rivals Excluded

Gestair Maintenance, acquired by the Hyperion defence fund in May 2025, has emerged as the sole remaining bidder for a Spanish Air Force contract covering maintenance of several aircraft types for the 2026–2030 period, after its two rivals were definitively excluded. Spain's Air and Space Force Directorate of Acquisitions, part of the Logistics Support Command, tendered the contract for upkeep of three aircraft types, and three companies originally submitted bids: European Aviation Competence Center GmbH, Hispano-Lusitana de Aviación, and Gestair Maintenance. As of Wednesday 9 September, the first two have been definitively excluded, leaving Gestair Maintenance as the strong favourite to win.

The total contract is valued at an estimated €80.5 million, rising to €118.6 million with possible extensions and modifications. Of the base value, €34 million is allocated specifically to maintenance of the Falcon jets used to transport government ministers and members of the royal family; the first of these aircraft was manufactured in 1988 and the last in 1989. The contract scope includes airframe, engine, systems and component maintenance, scheduled overhauls, pre- and post-flight inspections, exterior washing, localised repainting and deep interior cleaning.

The fleet covered also includes two Airbus A310 aircraft for longer-range missions and 20 aircraft assigned to the Air Force's Centro Cartográfico y Fotográfico (CECAF). Gestair Maintenance previously won the equivalent maintenance contracts awarded in 2017 and 2021, before it was absorbed by the Hyperion fund. Hyperion was co-founded by Pablo Casado, the former national leader of Spain's Partido Popular, after he left politics; the fund describes Gestair as the market leader in executive aviation management in Spain and the leading MRO operator in southern Europe.

Military MRO tenders of this kind often reduce to a single credible bidder once technical or administrative exclusions run their course, particularly when the incumbent has already serviced the same fleet across prior contract cycles. Gestair's run on this contract since 2017 illustrates how continuity of type-specific certifications, spare-parts access and government-aircraft security clearances can favour whoever already holds the work, making re-competition more formal than open.

The presence of a defence-focused fund as owner also signals how consolidation is reaching specialist MRO providers tied to sovereign fleets, where mission-critical aircraft such as the Falcon jets used for ministerial and royal transport carry outsized contract value relative to fleet size. Whether European Aviation Competence Center GmbH or Hispano-Lusitana de Aviación contest their exclusions, and how Spain's procurement authority finalises award terms against the €118.6 million ceiling, will determine how much of this contract's scope is settled without further competition.