Poste Air Cargo, named Mistral Air until 30 September 2019, is an Italian cargo and former passenger airline headquartered in Rome and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Poste italiane. Its hubs are Brescia Airport and Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport in Rome. The airline used to serve domestic scheduled and international charter passenger services which it ceased in mid 2018 while focusing on cargo operations since then.

History

thumb|right|Mistral Air logo used until September 2019

Mistral Air was established in 1981 by actor and former swimmer Bud Spencer (Carlo Pedersoli) and started operations in 1984.

thumb|left|A [[Bae.146QT in full TNT colors]]

It was wholly owned by TNT N.V. The fleet incorporated increasingly larger aircraft: 3 Grumman G.159 Gulfstreams (1986-1989), 2 leased Fokker F27s, the first of several British Aerospace BAe.146QTs (starting in 1987), the first of several Boeing 737s (starting in 2006).

In May 2018, owner Poste Italiane announced that Mistral Air will cease all scheduled and charter passenger flights to focus on cargo operations from now on. The airline has been loss-making for years and recently lost a PSO contract for Italian domestic services as well.

thumb|right|An [[ATR 72-500 at Naples Airport in the last Mistral Air livery]]

In 1 October 2019, Mistral Air was rebranded as Poste Air Cargo.

Destinations

As of April 2021, Poste Air Cargo operates scheduled cargo flights to the following domestic destinations as well as 8 international services from their hub in Rome:

{|class="wikitable sortable"

|-

! Country

! City

! Airport

! Notes

! class="unsortable"|Refs

|-

|rowspan="8"|Italy||Bari||Bari Karol Wojtyła Airport|| ||

|-

|Brescia||Brescia Airport|| ||

|-

|Cagliari||Cagliari Elmas Airport|| ||

|-

|Catania||Catania Fontanarossa Airport|| ||

|-

|Lamezia Terme||Lamezia Terme International Airport || ||

|-

|Naples||Naples International Airport || ||

|-

|Palermo|| Falcone Borsellino Airport || ||

|-

|Rome||Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport || ||

|-

|rowspan="8"|Malta||Malta||Malta International Airport || ||

|}

Latest passenger destinations served by Mistral Air brand were Cagliari, Catania, Naples, Palermo, Perugia, Brescia and Pescara in Italy as well as Tirana in Albania which all ceased by August 2018.

Fleet

thumb|A [[Boeing 737 Classic|Boeing 737-400F of Poste Air Cargo]]

, Poste Air Cargo operates the following aircraft:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+ Poste Air Cargo fleet

|-

!Aircraft

!In service

!Orders

!Notes

|-

|Boeing 737-400SF

|5

|—

|

|-

|Boeing 737-800BCF

|3

|—

|

|-

!Total

!8

!—

!

|}

References

  • Official website