ATESA

ATESA (short for Autotransporte Turístico Español S.A.) is a Spanish car rental company. It belongs to Enterprise Holdings, a large company from the United States^[1].

ATESA was set up in December 1949 by INI, a Spanish state company. Until 1980, it was a mixed company, owned partly by the government and partly by private investors. It was created to be Spain's flagship land transport company. ATESA was part of a group of companies owned by INI that worked in Spain's booming tourism industry during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

At first, ATESA worked in bus transport. Its goal was to provide road transport services that would help move both Spanish and foreign travelers around the country. This matched the early years of Spain's big growth in tourism.

In 1956, Viajes Hispano-Continental became a shareholder in ATESA, and in 1964, Viajes Marsans did too. This helped the company grow into more types of transport.

In 1980, ATESA became fully privatized, and its ownership changed. After this, the company focused mainly on car rental in Spain. It gave up its road passenger transport business, which had been the original reason the company was founded.

In 1989, the French company PSA (Peugeot-Citroën Automóviles) took over ATESA. In 1998, after a deal with the American company ANC (which owned Alamo, National, and Cartemps), ATESA started using the business name National ATESA.

In February 2012, ATESA joined the international company Enterprise Holdings. Enterprise Holdings is a world leader in car rental, with almost 8,000 offices around the world, more than 60,000 employees, and a fleet of over 1,000,000 cars. By joining Enterprise Holdings, ATESA made its position in the market stronger, offering customers a bigger and more competitive global service.^[2]

1. ↑ "Alquiler de coches y furgonetas en España". www.enterprise.es (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2026-08-07.
2. ↑ "Alquiler de coches y furgonetas en España". www.enterprise.es (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2026-08-07.