The impacts of various processing techniques on volatile compounds of cured hairtail were studied using an electronic nose and headspace solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS). The obtained results indicated that the contributions of the first and second principal components were 96.44% and 2.60%, respectively, which contained sufficient sensory information to different samples. Totally 27, 45 and 56 volatile compounds were detected from hairtail samples that were fresh, traditional cured and fermented cured, respectively, and most of volatile compounds were aldehydes, alcohols and ketones. Hexanal, benzaldehyde, octanal, (E, E)-2, 4-heptadienal, 1-octen-3-ol, hexanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol, 3-hydroxy-2-butanone and trimethylamine were found involved in the formation of characteristic flavor of hairtail. Fresh hairtail exhibited mainly fishy and fruity flavors, and traditional cured hairtail showed fatty, mushroom-muddy and fruity flavors, while the main flavor of fermented cured hairtail were buttery, grassy-fatty and fruity, and these flavors were more intense and better-distributed.