Special Iron Maiden Livery

It has been quite a while since we last wrote about Bruce Dickinson and his big jet. As you learn from that article, celebs often fly themselves as pilots. Bruce Dickinson, the lead singer of Iron Maiden for example is an official pilot for a UK based small charter airline called Astraeus.

Now the famous rock band Iron Maiden is again up for something fresh and new. They are on their new “Somewhre back in time” tour. Well, this is nothing special so far, is it?

The big thing is that now fans can join the band on board their tour jet – with Mr Brucwe Dickinson himself as first officer on it, fly with them to the scene of the next concert, stay at a hotel and fly back together with them the next day. The funky thing is that the whole package costs only £349 – £399 depending on the scene.

Costs also include:

- Exclusive themed Bruce Air ED FORCE ONE goodie bag
- Personally signed photo of Bruce in Ed Force One
- Standing ticket to the Iron Maiden concert
- Bus transfers at destination to venue and to and from hotel where trip includes hotel.

The aircraft itself has a special Iron Maiden livery with the skull known from the album cover on the tail of the Boeing 757. You can book your flight on the special charter with Captain Bruce Dickinson on Brucair666.com now. You can read more on Iron Maiden’s official website.

(Photo: www.ironmaiden.com)

By Szafi

Emirates Looking for A380 Crew

According to ATW News, Emirates has initiated the next phase in welcoming the Airbus A380 superjumbo into its fleet in August: hiring flight crew!

Here is a video of the Emirates livery A380 flying above Dubai:

The Aviation College of Emirates will begin accepting A380 personnel to its crew training program in early June. Emirates will have 489 seats in its A380, and plans to operate it with 24 cabin staff onboard a normal flight meaning that there is one flight attendant for every 20 passegengers. Just as a comparison, a regular narrow-body Airbus A320 or Boeing B737 flies with around 4-5 flight attendants per 150 passengers meaning that there is one flight attendant for every 30-35 passengers only. It is interesting that they plan to have a little more than about six complete crews for every aircraft. There will be 158 employees trained for the first four A380s scheduled to arrive in 2008 and they will be selected from current Boeing 777 and Airbus A330/A340 staff, Senior VP-Service Delivery Terry Daly told ATWOnline in Dubai. This also shows just how complicated of a process it is to introduce a new aircraft to an airline’s fleet.

In average, 90 new flight attendants join Emirates each week and the carrier currently employs 9,200 cabin staff from 116 countries. “Four years ago, the number of cabin crew was around 4,000. By 2012-13 we will have a total of 18,000,” Daly said. The carrier is sending recruiters throughout its worldwide network to hire more staff. He said just 5% of applicants eventually are hired.

by balint01