Air Djibouti, which went bust in 2002 after years of mismanagement, plans to resume cargo operations this year and add passenger service in 2016 with the help of a management deal with Cardiff Aviation, according to a report in CelebratingProgressAfrica.

Wales-based Cariff Aviation was founded by Bruce Dickinson, multimillionaire front man for the heavy metal band Iron Maiden.

Djibouti, population 810,000, wants to be a logistics and commercial hub for trade in East Africa, said Aboubaker Omar Hadi, president of Djibouti Ports Authority, in a statement, according to CPAfrica.

The small East African nation doesn’t often show up on the itineraries of the world’s most famous bands. Dickinson goes there because of his other job as owner of an aviation business.

Dickinson agreed to help re-launch Air Djibouti with Cardiff Aviation sourcing the aircraft and helping to run the operation.

The country needs Air Djibouti if it’s going to position itself as a low-tax, international trade center to rival Dubai.

The return of Air Djibouti is part of the country’s goal to become a major logistics hub. With Chinese funding, Djibouti is building four new ports, two airports, and a $3.5 billion free-trade zone set to be partially open by mid-2016, CPAfrica reports. Growing foreign interest in Djibouti is due to its strategic location in the Horn of Africa at the entrance to the Red Sea — one of the world’s busiest shipping lines.

Djibouti plays host to military personnel from U.S. France, Netherlands, Spain and Japan — as many as 25,000 — France24 reported. And the U.S. military agreed to extend its presence by 25 years, including Camp Lemonnier, its African headquarters. One foreign diplomat referred to Djibouti as “an oasis in a bad neighborhood.”

A restored 752-kilometer (467-mile) railway, financed and built by China, links the port capital of Djibouti with landlocked Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, according to an earlier AFKInsider report. It is expected to reduce transport time between the capitals from two days to less than 10 hours.

The government-owned Air Djibouti hopes to handle 1,000 tons of freight by the end of 2015, CPAfrica reports. It plans to start cargo services to Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan and Uganda this year, specializing in high-value goods such as electronics, laptops, temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals and spare parts for the oil industry.

Air Djibouti also plans to provide cheap direct fights to Paris, London, Dubai, Delhi and destinations in Africa.

Dickinson, 57, is best known as lead vocalist of Iron Maiden. He gained worldwide fame in the 1980s after the band had a series of albums go platinum and gold in the U.S. and U.K. He become one of the most acclaimed heavy metal vocalists of all time, CPAfrica reports.

Launched in 2012, Cardiff Aviation is an aircraft maintenance business based at the Twin Peaks Hangar in St. Athan, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales.

The company offers maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) training and commercial-operations services, AviationWeek reports.

Dickinson, who is an active pilot on various Boeing aircraft, hopes that 737s will be operating at Air Djibouti by the end of first quarter 2016. By mid 2016, “we should start introducing the 767-200ER, that will probably be (used to transport passengers) to London and Paris initially,” as the first two destinations, he told Aviation Daily in an exclusive interview at MRO Europe.

AirDjibouti wants to expand services to Guanghou in China and to India, as well as to Miami via Lagos, Dickinson said. “That aircraft will actually do all of those routes comfortably,” he said, but he expects that Air Djibouti will need a second 767 by the time it expands to China and the U.S.

Four other countries are interested in Dickinson’s airline-in-a-box concept, he told AviationWeek.

Dickinson’s services include starting an airline with aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance services — everything an airline needs for safe and compliant operation, Dickinson said.

Cardiff Aviation launched its own airline, VVB, in July.

Dickinson was licenced to pilot light aircraft in 1991, and later got a commercial pilot licence, BusinessTraveller reports. He flew for British World Airlines and Icelandic charter carrier Astraeus before both went bust.

In June, Dickinson told Walesonline that his company, Cardiff Aviation has “grown relentlessly” thanks to the airline-in-a-box approach. He described it as “our unique entrepreneurial style of MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) and training.” He said he’d brought that approach to the airline market with VVB.

Cardiff Aviation plans to develop a revolutionary approach to aviation, which will allow corporations and countries to quickly set up airlines with European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)-class compliance and capability, according to WalesOnline.

“If you are looking to establish an airline, we will do all of the procurement, technical execution and administration on your behalf,” Dickinson said. “We can give you a one-stop ‘airline in a box’ – all you need to do is sell the tickets, and we’ll do the rest.”