This week Bruce Dickinson was personally responsible for delivering the latest aircraft to join Cardiff Aviation’s ACMI (Aircraft Crew Maintenance Insurance) fleet to Albawings in Albania. The new Boeing 737-400 will carry out operations between Albania and Italy over Winter 2016-17, providing additional capacity on highly popular routes.
Named in honour of a much loved character played by Albania’s unlikely British cult hero, the Sir Norman Wisdom “Mr Pitkin”, set off on it’s maiden voyage from Cardiff Avaition’s MRO facilities to Tirana on Monday 12 December.
Better known as the hapless hero of many a classic film including “A Stitch In Time”, it was perhaps with some surprise that Albawings chose the name “Mr Pitkin” for their new aircraft. However, Sir Norman Wisdom’s films were the only movies allowed featuring a western actor during the Communist period, as he was often cast as the little man set against capitalist corporations.
Cardiff Aviation’s Chairman, Bruce Dickinson, said: “When we first entered into negotiations to provide a new aircraft to service routes from Albania, we were pleasantly surprised to find out just how respected Sir Norman is across the country. We’re delighted to honour his memory with our latest aircraft as ‘One good Turn’ and of course, we expect it to be a much smoother operator than Mr. Pitkin!”
This is the second of Cardiff Aviation’s ACMI airline operations; the first being Air Djibouti that launched in August this year, which features the ‘airline in a box’ business model for countries who wish to establish or extend airlines with minimal financial risk.
Bruce said: “With Mr. Pitkin, we’re delighted to be the ‘Man of the Moment’ and we hope this is the foundation for an ongoing long-term relationship based around our ACMI operations.”
