Mistral Air expands fleet

Italian state-owned postal services company Poste Italiane’s airline Mistral Air will expand its fleet with three new Boeing 737-300 Quick Change aircraft and plans to start transporting passengers on charter flights.
The new aircraft are equipped to allow a quick change from cargo to passenger transport configuration, thanks to a system of rails. In 40 minutes, the fuselage’s cargo containers can be removed and replaced by passenger seats.
Thanks to the Quick Change system, Mistral Air can double its flight capacity, by exploiting the night time to transport cargo and the daytime and weekends to transport passengers on charter flights.
The Boeing 737-300 can transport up to 145 passengers to destinations such as Spain, the Canary Islands, Greece, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. The hubs of Mistral Air’s fleet will be based at Milan Malpensa, Rome Fiumicino and Palermo airports.
Mistral Air’s industrial plan targets for the next five years a total revenue of 200 mln euro (USD261.8 mln), with an increase by 150 mln euro (USD196.4 mln) from the current revenue.
The immediate target of the airline is to transport 210,000 passengers in 2007 and to achieve a total passenger traffic of 1.0 million in the next four years.