Aeral (contraction of AERonautica ALessandrina) is a defunct private Italian airline, which used ex-Alitalia Douglas DC-8s. It was founded in March 1958 at Alessandria in southern Piedmont by Maria Luisa Bottanelli, and later moved its operational base at Milan Malpensa airport. The company initially concentrated on air taxi work using a fleet of Cessna 421 aircraft, but in 1978, the company's twentieth year of operations, a new activity was introduced, that of international charter freight tranportation with a four engined Douglas DC-8/54. A second aircraft of the type leased from Overseas National Airways, was introduced in December 1979. Cargo flights started on 17 February 1979. For financial difficulties, Aeral ceased all activity on August 31, 1980.