The lease of the Boeing 757-200PCF freighter (YR-AEA) from AerSale Corporation represents a major milestone for Mister Air as the Romanian cargo carrier prepares to launch its own dedicated flight operations. Operating under a Romanian Air Operator Certificate (AOC) with its own crew, the aircraft is expected to enter commercial service in October 2026.

While Mister Air is registered in Romania, the airline bases its operations out of Łódź, Poland. The carrier is strategically focused on the booming e-commerce sector, providing scheduled and ad-hoc freighter services for express parcel delivery. The airline’s network is designed to connect Asia, the Middle East, and Central and Eastern Europe, in addition to undertaking specialized cargo missions worldwide. The Boeing 757 was specifically chosen because its combination of range and payload makes it highly economical on routes where larger widebody freighters would be too large to operate profitably.

The structural backbone behind Mister Air is AerCommerce, a Poland-based aviation company that manages the airline’s operations and acts as one of its major shareholders. With headquarters in Łódź, a main operations center in Lublin, and financial backing from the US-based strategic investor Global Aviation Solutions, AerCommerce provides extensive cargo charter and brokerage experience to the new airline. For Mister Air, this inaugural 757 serves as the foundation for an ambitious long-term plan to scale its network and eventually introduce additional medium and heavy freighters to its fleet.

About the aircraft:

The aircraft is a Boeing 757-223 with the Manufacturer Serial Number (MSN) 32391. It was manufactured in November 2001 and originally delivered to American Airlines as a passenger jet under the registration N197AN. Powered by Rolls-Royce RB211 engines, it flew for years in American’s commercial fleet.

During its time with American Airlines, the aircraft was involved in a notable emergency incident in September 2008. After an electrical relay failure shortly after takeoff from Chicago, the flight crew had to switch to standby battery power. Thinking they had 30 minutes of battery life, they consulted maintenance and elected to continue the flight rather than immediately diverting. However, the battery eventually depleted completely, causing massive cascading system failures in the cockpit—including a loss of the captain’s instruments, stabilizer trim, anti-skid brakes, and thrust reversers. The crew had to declare an emergency and land on a 7,500-foot runway. Due to the lack of braking capability, the captain intentionally veered the aircraft off the runway into the grass to avoid overrunning the end of the strip, blowing out seven of the plane’s eight main gear tires in the process.

Conversion to Freighter (PCF) After eventually being retired from American Airlines’ passenger fleet, the aircraft was acquired by the US-based aviation leasing and maintenance firm AerSale. Recognizing the ongoing demand for narrowbody freighters, AerSale had the airframe undergo a specialized passenger-to-freighter (P2F) conversion. It was transformed into a Boeing 757-200PCF (Precision Converted Freighter), stripping out the passenger cabin and installing a main-deck cargo door and reinforced flooring.

Current Operations Now, over two decades after it first flew, AerSale has leased the converted freighter to Romania’s new cargo startup, Mister Air. Re-registered in Romania as YR-AEA, it serves as the foundational aircraft for Mister Air’s ambitious e-commerce and express parcel delivery network connecting Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.