Iron Maiden star hopes to save Astraeus
23.11.11
Astraeus Airlines pilot and marketing director Bruce Dickinson, who is also the lead singer of Iron Maiden, has vowed to rescue the airline. The Gatwick-based ad hoc airline, a subsidiary of Icelandic travel group Eignarhaldsfelagid Fengur – owner of Iceland Express – was paced into administration on Monday after a downturn in summer business, a lack of winter contracts and some technical problems with its planes.
Mr Dickinson told the BBC: ‘I'm already working on a plan to try to save Astraeus, or at least create a new business with new jobs for my friends and former colleagues at Astraeus.’ He said a ‘number of prospective investors’ had expressed an interest in the airline and that he was working on plans to create a new flight training company.
He added: ‘The enthusiasm is fuelled by the deluge of messages I received from the second I switched on my phone after landing the last Astraeus flight on Monday, and, of course, the interest of a number of prospective investors. I will be back at the controls of a commercial airliner before I am very much older, but I may also be at the controls of the company that operates that airliner, and others like it.’
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