In a recent interview with Wales Online, Bruce Dickinson spoke candidly about his future plans for Cardiff Aviation as well as looking forward to Iron Maiden’s forthcoming concert in Cardiff.
Speaking from outside the hanger at St Athans airfield Bruce explained why he’s confident for the future of Cardiff Aviation – the maintenance and repair organisation (MRO), pilot training and airline leasing company into which he has invested £4million of his own money.
Based on the RAF airbase at St Athans, it seemed that Cardiff Aviation had picked the perfect location from which to set up business. However, it hasn’t been without its problems. Most recently Cardiff Aviation lost a contract with EasyJet because of restrictions on landing facilities due to an issue with an MOD instrument landing system (ILS).
Unsurprisingly this restriction is a source of frustration as they’ve been unable to attract as much business as hoped, and meant cut backs and restructuring of the MRO side of operations.
Bruce voiced this frustration when asked what he’ll be saying to the Ministers of the Welsh Government when he meets with them next week.
“Well I think there are again certain elements in St Athan and in particular in the enterprise zone that have massively unfulfilled potential. I think that frankly one or two people need to get their finger out and get the airfield properly opened with an instrument landing system which is available”.
However, despite the set-backs Bruce remains optimistic that a solution might soon be forthcoming.
“It’s taken them two years to come to an agreement with the MoD about the use of the ILS, which was paid for by the Welsh Government and installed at vast expense to the public purse and which has never been used in anger, even though it works perfectly well. I brought an aircraft in from Djibouti the other day and we got the ILS 40 miles away.
“The attitude of the new RAF base commander at St Athan is very positive and I think that’s helped things along.
“The aeroplane we have just repaired has just had the biggest structural repair it’s possible to do on a Boeing 737 without taking it to the scrapyard. We sawed it virtually in half and replaced the entire centre section. It’s a massive engineering task and the guys have done brilliantly.
“My intention is that if we get the support we think we should get from the aviation community, from the other airlines, I would like to welcome Easyjet back. We spent two years getting Easyjet and unfortunately they left.”
Bruce’s meeting with ministers of the Welsh Government is scheduled for 4 April, where he hopes for cordial conversations about access to the airfield, the use of the ILS and bringing an end to a dispute over rent for the facilities. As Cardiff Aviation currently employs 200 permanent staff at the St Athans facility, he’s particularly hopeful for constructive talks considering the value the business brings to the region.
“We are having a formal getting round the table on April 4, so we’ll finally get round the table with them, and we’ve arranged a mediation process so we’re going there, relaying our side of the story, and they’ll be saying their side, and we’re going to try and get to some sensible agreement which secures the future going forward.
“I would like to draw a line under the mishaps and semi-catastrophes of the past, there’s no point in banging on about them because there’s a future to look forward to. We’re employing nearly 200 people, which at a time when they’re shedding jobs at Bridgend and everywhere else is absolutely massive.”
Alongside the MRO facilities, Cardiff Aviation offers pilot training, an area that is seeing fantastic growth thanks to the high global demand for trained pilots as airlines expand and older pilots reach retirement. Facilities currently include two 747 flight simulators, one of which is currently being upgraded to the highest level of simulation possible.
Bruce proudly states that once the upgrade is complete.
“This is where Air Atlanta will be coming once we get the certification, to do all of their training for their pilots, so it’s a big feather in the cap for us.”
Discussions are also underway with Norwegian Airlines, about training the 2,000 new pilots they plan to recruit over the next two years. There are also hopes of persuading them to move some of their maintenance and repair work to St Athans.
Even with all this underway Bruce has found the time to fit Iron Maiden tour dates into his Summer schedule. Extending the successful Book of Souls world tour, Iron Maiden have two months of arena concerts planned for Europe, which includes a night at Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena in May. They then move on to a further two months touring the US.
“Cardiff is a great rock town, it has some great bands, it’s got an amazing stadium. I think the best in the world for every event you could imagine. Genuinely.”
However, whilst he’s looking forward to playing Cardiff he’s not letting the rock business get in the way of his passion for aviation.
“I might even be up at the training centre a few days before the show as I’m thinking of having a bit of an open day where people can visit the training centre, fly the 747 simulator and have a few experiences like that So I might be hanging around a bit and be available there.”
Discussing tour dates, the impact of losing smaller live music venues such as Dempseys in Cardiff City Centre also came up.
“Sadly that seems to be happening in a lot of places. It’s the gentrification of the city centre, the dodgy hangouts which are really cool which kids like. We wouldn’t have been able to start out if there hadn’t been venues like that. The good thing is you don’t need a lot to have a place where you can have a racket and have people turn up.”
When asked how important small venues were when starting out as a band Bruce said.
“Small venues are indispensable to bands… always have been and always will be. I think we miss a trick in this country and some countries in Europe do it better, in that they protect their social infrastructure. And pubs and small venues are part of that social infrastructure.
“Just because something would be worth X a square foot, that is a case of people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
“These are vital things [small music venues] and the reason why people come to a city centre is to keep it alive. And it not just people who want to drink posh lattes, there are other people in the world who have cultural needs and rock and roll is pretty fundamental to people’s lives these days.”
Turning back to business again, and more specifically the impact Brexit might have, Bruce’s view is positive. He sees opportunity for building alliances with non EU countries with healthy aviation industries such as Norway and Iceland.
“We hold approvals for countries around the world for fixing their airliners. Any airline from anywhere in Europe and around the world can come here and get their aeroplanes fixed,” he said.
“A Boeing is a Boeing, they fly them everywhere and we can fix them. The value of the pound has dropped which is good for us, the other things is the quality of the work, those two things make us very competitive. The same with the pilot training.
“There are all sorts of alliances we can do with European countries because we are in the UK and Africa as well as Europe, and I think that’s a model that one or two other people might end up doing.
“The UK is one of Europe’s most successful transport hubs, Americans aren’t going to stop coming here and because they’re coming here everybody else is going to keep coming here. You can get to anywhere else in the world from London, more than from anywhere else in the world.”
Read Bruce’s full interview with Wales Online
