A novel aerobic, Gram-negative, rod-shaped, motile bacterium, designated strain 5516S-11(T), was isolated from air samples collected in the Suwon region of the Republic of Korea. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that the organism belongs to the genus Massilia; the highest sequence similarity (97.2 %) was found with respect to Massilia aurea DSM 18055(T). Cells of strain 5516S-11(T) contained ubiquinone Q-8 as the predominant isoprenoid quinone and possessed summed feature 3 (C(16 : 1)omega7c/iso-C(15 : 0) 2-OH; 35.2 %), C(16 : 0) (30.6 %) and C(18 : 1)omega7c (11.7 %) as the major fatty acids. DNA-DNA hybridization revealed 32 % relatedness between strain 5516S-11(T) and M. aurea DSM 18055(T). The G+C content of the DNA of strain 5516S-11(T) was 68.9 mol%. It is clear from the genotypic and phenotypic data presented that strain 5516S-11(T) represents a novel species of the genus Massilia, for which the name Massilia aerilata sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 5516S-11(T) (=KACC 12505(T) =DSM 19289(T)).