Spain's Plus Ultra bailout: corruption scheme or sheer incompetence?

Plus Ultra: the bailout that smells like a racket

The public bailout of Plus Ultra was not a simple corporate rescue. Based on the available data, the deal shows all the hallmarks of a rigged award. The airline, which barely operated a single Spain–Venezuela route with a tiny fleet, received public money even though SEPI's (Spain's state holding company) criteria reserve such aid for systemic companies. Coincidence? Those who have analysed the case rule that out.

The court investigation reveals that Plus Ultra's top brass turned to businessman Julio Ariza and former judge Manuel García-Castellón to neutralise the accusation brought by Vox, which had managed to keep the incivil case alive. After the case was dismissed in January 2023, Vox withdrew its bond and stopped applying pressure. The question hangs in the air: were there strings attached?

But the murkiest trail points to Julio Martínez Martínez, a businessman who between 2020 and 2024 controlled 39 companies –20 of them inactive– with no bank accounts in his name in Spain and a single income tax return in five years. Reports by the ONIF (Spain's tax fraud investigation office) suggest an opaque web in which the bailout may have served to launder funds of illicit origin, a theory that connects to the old Mena case in the U.S.

The combination of a company with no strategic weight, parallel court manoeuvring and a financial structure designed to hide resources makes the official account of the "bailout" wobble. If the process was clean, someone will have to explain why so many details don't add up. If it wasn't, the Plus Ultra case could be just the tip of a much larger iceberg.