In the aerospace industry there is an increasing trend towards replacement of chromium plating with environmentally friendlier techniques, such as WC/Co deposition by HVOF spraying. In the present work, WC/12Co coatings (with and without Ni/5Al bond layers) were deposited on 7075 Al substrates by HVOF spraying. Porosity and oxide content of the coatings were less than  1%. The corrosion behaviour of the coatings was investigated by salt spray testing for 40 days, followed by cyclic potentiodynamic tests in a 3.5 wt% aqueous NaCl solution. The effect of the bond coat, coating thickness and electrolyte temperature on the corrosion properties of the coatings was assessed. The cermet based coatings were not susceptible to pit corrosion, at any temperature; they also showed passivity at a limited range of anodic potentials, which decreased with temperature increasing. All coatings exhibited a metastable pitting behaviour which turned to a stable pitting state only in the case of single Ni/5Al coatings. The coating system WC/12Co- Ni/5Al presented the higher corrosion resistance.