Former pilot Bruce Dickinson lands final flight at Manchester with promise to launch Astraeus passenger jets back into the air

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

Iron Maiden frontman and pilot Bruce Dickinson has vowed to resurrect a UK airline which has gone into administration.

In the past Dickinson flew for Astraeus Airlines and this week he captained its last flight, flying a Boeing passenger jet from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to Manchester.

The singer is forming a plan to save the airline, which was owned by an Icelandic-based travel group but is based at Crawley in West Sussex. It is understood that the business would continue to work by leasing planes to major carriers to cover routes when needed, as it did previously.

"Firstly, 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," Dickinson said. "This is a serious plan involving people who are very good at their jobs.

"I see the potential for a viable operation, should acquisition of the company prove achievable."

Dickinson added that "a number of prospective investors" had expressed an interest in the company.

The pilot's comments come following suggestions he may have to return to music full-time.

He plans to create 1,500 jobs in the aerospace industry as part of an undisclosed project in South Wales, as well as starting a flight training company.

"I'm extremely upbeat about these opportunities, particularly the potential for a revival, in some form, of Astraeus.

"The enthusiasm is also 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."

Astraeus Airlines said on Monday that it had ceased operations and was applying to the high court administrators to be appointed.

The firm has been going since 2002, but blamed its collapse on lower-than-expected business this summer and a lack of contracts for winter.

Building on his time as as a Boeing 757 captain with Astraeus, Dickinson flew his Iron Maiden and their 60-member crew plus 12 tons of equipment around the world on the band's own customized Boeing 757, Ed Force One - named after Maiden's infamous mummy mascot "Eddie".