Who is behind Fly2Galicia: owner, capital, and doubts about the new airline from Santiago

With the information available up to August 18, 2026, Fly2Galicia is not currently processing its own air operating license in Spain. According to the news from Demócrata, the company has not applied for an Air Operator Certificate (AOC) before the State Aviation Safety Agency (AESA) and has instead chosen to operate under the AOC and operating license of another European airline through a wet lease (ACMI) model.

In the Spanish and European civil aviation system, the operating license and the AOC are the two key enabling titles for a company to operate regular passenger transport flights with its own fleet and crews. AESA – under the umbrella of the Ministry of Transport and in coordination with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation – is the authority responsible for issuing, renewing, suspending, or revoking these licenses and certificates, as recalled in resolutions published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) on AESA's competencies.

In the specific case of Fly2Galicia, the central piece is the Demócrata article "Fly2Galicia announces eight new routes from Santiago starting December with tickets from 19 euros" (08/16/2026). That text explains that:

• Fly2Galicia will not have its own AOC for now and has not processed it before AESA.
• The project relies on an ACMI or wet lease scheme, whereby another European airline, already certified, provides the aircraft and materially operates under its own AOC and operating license, while Fly2Galicia handles ticket sales and commercial route development.
• The promoters claim to have reached an agreement with that European operator, whose identity has not been made public due to confidentiality clauses.
• As of August 16, Fly2Galicia is not yet listed in Aena's public schedule as an operating company at Santiago-Rosalía de Castro airport, and several of the announced destinations also do not appear in that schedule.

This combination of data allows a clear conclusion about Fly2Galicia's own administrative processing: the company has not initiated the procedure to become an operating airline before AESA. That is, there is no record of:

• Application for an Air Operator Certificate (AOC) in its name.
• Processing of a Spanish air operating license as an air transport company.
• Ongoing files before the Directorate General of Civil Aviation specifically for Fly2Galicia to operate with its own certificates.

Instead, the project is structured as a commercial brand and route development, supported by a commercial company registered as Aviation & Mobility Services Group S.L., based in Santiago de Compostela and classified under CNAE 7911 (travel agencies). Fly2Galicia is the trade name of that company. The legal design is justified by the idea that the contracted European operator will assume the obligations derived from the AOC and the operating license.

From a regulatory point of view, this means that:

• The flights planned for December 2026 and the 2026-2027 season will legally depend on the AOC and operating license of the airline contracted under ACMI, not on a title owned by Fly2Galicia.
• Any operational safety supervision will fall on that certified operator, under the authority of AESA and applicable European regulations, while Fly2Galicia acts as an intermediary and marketer.
• The eventual evolution towards a fully certified airline would require in the future opening a new file before AESA and the DGAC to obtain its own AOC and operating license, a point on which the project only speaks in terms of possibility, with no evidence that it has been initiated.

In summary: as of today, the specific administrative processing of Fly2Galicia to obtain a Spanish air operating license does not exist as such. The chosen model avoids that process for now, relying on third-party certification and concentrating Fly2Galicia's role on the commercial and route development side, while the company advances institutional contacts with the Santiago City Council and the Xunta de Galicia to promote its connectivity project.

In Galicia, competencies in air transport are heavily conditioned by the constitutional reservation to the State of navigation and air transport and of airports of general interest, but the Xunta does have relevant functions in planning, territorial ordering, mobility, and coordination of the transport system that affect air transport and its infrastructures.

1. Basic state framework and reservation of competence to the State

Article 149.1.20.ª of the Constitution grants the State exclusive competence over airports of general interest, airspace control, air traffic, and air transport. This reservation is developed, among other regulations, in:

• The Law 48/1960, on Air Navigation (partially amended) and its regulatory development, which regulates sovereignty over airspace, navigation, and air services.
• The Law 21/2003, on Air Safety, whose Title I distributes "completely and systematically" the State competencies in airports of general interest, airspace control, air traffic, air transport, and other aeronautical areas, configuring the competent Ministry (today Transport and Sustainable Mobility) as the civil aeronautical authority.
• The Royal Decree 2591/1998, on the organization of airports of general interest and their service area, developed and modified by later regulations (such as Royal Decree 1189/2011 or Royal Decree 1267/2018), which defines the planning of airports of general interest through State Master Plans.
• The Royal Decree 160/2023, which approves the Statute of the public business entity ENAIRE, and consolidates the distribution of functions between it (air navigation and airspace) and Aena S.M.E., S.A. (airport management in the network of airports of general interest).

This regulatory block implies that the management of Galicia's airports of general interest (such as A Coruña, Santiago, or Vigo), air traffic control, and regulation of commercial air services are State competencies.

2. Competencies of the Xunta de Galicia linked to air transport

Although the core competence over civil aviation is State-level, the Xunta de Galicia exercises competencies in several areas affecting air transport:

2.1. Territorial planning and airport integration

The Decree 19/2011, of February 10, which approves the Territorial Planning Guidelines of Galicia, places the Xunta (through the competent department) as responsible for territorial policy and infrastructure and mobility. The DOT:

• Establish the general territorial framework for the implementation of uses and activities, including major transport infrastructures.
• Define criteria for integration of airports and transport infrastructures in Galician territorial and urban planning, coordinating with State planning (airport master plans).

Additionally, the reform of the Air Navigation Law has foreseen the creation of environmental commissions at airports under State competence, in which autonomous communities with competencies in transport, environment, and territorial planning participate; this gives the Xunta a consultative and monitoring role regarding the environmental and territorial impact of State airports located in Galicia.

2.2. Planning and coordination of the transport system in Galicia

The Law 10/2016, on urgent measures for updating Galicia's public transport system, configures the Galicia public transport plan as the Xunta's central instrument to:

• Organize regular public transport services under regional competence.
• Establish coordination of all public transport services developed in the Autonomous Community.
• Promote intermodality between transport modes and accessibility, focusing on daily mobility and territorial cohesion.

Although the law is mainly designed for land transport, its approach to "promote the priority use of public transport in any of its modes" and to facilitate intermodality allows the Xunta to:

• Plan and finance land connections (bus, taxi, other modes) to/from airports.
• Integrate airports into the Galician public transport network, through coordinated schedules, intermodal nodes, and unified information and ticketing systems, as far as its regulations and contracts allow.

2.3. Autonomous aerodromes and limitations

State regulations distinguish between airports of general interest (State competence) and aerodromes, heliports, and other airports without that qualification. Royal Decree 1189/2011 regulates, among other aspects, the procedure for:

• The establishment, modification, and opening to traffic of autonomous aerodromes.
• The issuance of binding prior reports by the State authority on such projects, to preserve State competencies in navigation and air safety.

This opens a potential space for the Xunta to assume functions of promotion, planning, and possibly management of aerodromes or heliports that are not of general interest, always under the umbrella of State regulations on safety, aeronautical easements, and airspace control. In the information consulted, there is no specific royal decree transferring such powers to Galicia similar to those issued for other communities (such as Aragón in RD 171/2011), so the current margin is mainly in the phase of territorial planning, reports, and collaboration.

3. Summary

In short, civil aviation and airports of general interest in Galicia are State competencies (navigation rules, safety, airport management, routes, and user rights). The Xunta de Galicia:

• Orders the territory and infrastructures, integrating airports into territorial and mobility planning.
• Plans and coordinates the Galician public transport system, including intermodality with air transport and access connections.
• Participates in cooperation and environmental and territorial information bodies on airports and can promote autonomous aerodromes not qualified as general interest, subject to State legislation.

The available information on the professional and business trajectory of Gueorgui Iavorov Popov Popov before Fly2Galicia is limited and fragmentary. What the consulted databases and specialized press do allow to reconstruct is the portrait of a businessman linked to small intermediary projects in the air and tourism sector, without public positions or known institutional trajectory in Spain or Galicia, and with a prior history focused on small-scale companies.

Absence of public positions or institutional trajectory

In the consulted political and administrative position databases, there is no record associated with Gueorgui Iavorov Popov Popov, nor variants of his name. There is no evidence that he has been a deputy, senator, senior official of the Spanish Administration, nor that he has held management positions in autonomous or state public bodies. He is also not linked to parliamentary committees or responsible positions in the administrative structure of the Xunta de Galicia.

This is relevant because it indicates that his projection in Spain and Galicia does not come from the institutional sphere, but strictly from private business initiatives related to air transport and tourism.

Aviation & Mobility Services Group: the immediate prior vehicle

Before the Fly2Galicia brand, Iavorov's name appears in connection with the company Aviation & Mobility Services Group, which the press describes as having him as administrator and formal owner. According to the analysis published by the newspaper Demócrata about who is behind the project, it is a company established with minimal capital (one euro) and legally registered as a travel agency, not as an operating airline.

This corporate design fits the model announced for Fly2Galicia: a structure focused on ticket sales and route development under its own brand, while the actual operation of flights is outsourced to another airline through ACMI or wet lease contracts (the external company provides aircraft, crew, and licenses; the commercial brand sells the product to the passenger). This configuration places Iavorov in the profile of an intermediary and commercial promoter rather than a manager of a traditional airline with an operator certificate.

Precedent: the Alpha Tour Europe project (Palma de Mallorca, 2022)

The main known business precedent of Iavorov in the air sector is his link to the company Alpha Tour Europe. Various reports collected by Demócrata indicate that this company announced in 2022 the marketing of flights from Palma de Mallorca to several German cities.

According to Iavorov himself in those reports, Alpha Tour Europe finally operated only eight charter flights during Easter 2022 for a German client, and not a regular seasonal schedule. The promoter himself insists that this experience would not be comparable to Fly2Galicia's approach, which aims for stable routes and individual ticket sales, but it shows that his prior contact with the sector also occurred through a short-term, limited-scope charter travel scheme.

Known activity in Spain and link with Galicia

Beyond Alpha Tour Europe and Aviation & Mobility Services Group, no consistent references have been found to other significant companies directed or founded by Iavorov in Spain. There are no large corporate operations, airline purchases, significant stakes in consolidated tourism groups, nor appointments on boards of listed companies.

His link with Galicia becomes visible only with the preparation of the Fly2Galicia project and the decision to locate the operational base at Santiago de Compostela airport. The available profiles do not point to a prior business trajectory especially rooted in the Galician fabric nor to an investment history in the community before this project.

Opacity and biographical gaps

Another feature of his trajectory is the scarce biographical transparency. Neither in the consulted institutional databases nor in the analyzed news are there solid details about his academic background, initial professional career, habitual country of residence, business career in other sectors, or the possible existence of broader corporate groups behind his figure.

The press basically presents him as a business promoter of small-scale air projects, with a first charter experience in Mallorca through Alpha Tour Europe and later as sole administrator of a travel agency with minimal capital acting as the vehicle for the Fly2Galicia brand. There is no broad curriculum in major airlines nor a known public career in Spain or Galicia prior to these moves.

In summary, before Fly2Galicia, the trajectory of Gueorgui Iavorov Popov Popov that can be documented from Spain is reduced to a set of small and little consolidated business initiatives in the field of flight intermediation and travel services, without the backing of an institutional career nor a robust corporate history in the traditional aeronautical sector.