ASL Aviation Holdings has announced its official sponsorship of the Aviation Ireland Challenge, in support of the incredible adventures of Capt. Paddy T. Bear and his sidekick Lucky. The challenge aims to raise awareness and funds for two remarkable organisations, LauraLynn Children’s Hospice and Dogs Trust Ireland. ASL’s European airlines, ASL Airlines Belgium (ASLB), ASL Airlines France (ASLF) and ASL Airlines Ireland (ASLI) have embraced the challenge, flying the bears on a series of flights across their cargo and passenger operations.
The bears embarked on their journey in Shannon (SNN), joining ASLF on board its B737-800 flight to Dublin (DUB) and Paris-CDG. From there, they boarded one of ASLB’s ‘Queen of the Skies’, a B747-400F jumbo jet in Liege (LGG) on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Johannesburg (JNB) before returning to LGG via Nairobi (NBO).
Afterward, they returned to CDG to join ASLF on a transatlantic flight to the French territory of St. Pierre et Miquelon (FSP). ASLI then collected the bears at CDG, and they were off to East Midlands (EMA) and Edinburgh (EDI) on one of the airline’s ATR aircraft. ASLI then transferred the bears to a B737-800 for a flight to Leipzig (LEJ) and later transferred on an A330 aircraft to Tel Aviv (TLV). The intrepid bears finished their remarkable series of flights on the flight deck of an ASLI A300-600, flying to Helsinki (HEL) and finally Venice (VCE) and Bologna (BLQ).
Since the challenge’s launch in January this year, Capt. Paddy and Lucky have flown on flight decks alongside crews from renowned airlines like Aer Lingus, British Airways, Ryanair, QANTAS, Emerald Airways, and now ASL Airlines.
Throughout their travels, each bear carries a logbook to record the flight hours, pilot in command, aircraft type, and registration of each flight. At the end of the year, the logbooks and a scrapbook of their adventures will be auctioned to raise valuable funds for the two Irish charities. Capt. Paddy and Lucky will also be auctioned and donated to LauraLynn Children’s Hospice and Dogs Trust of Ireland, respectively.
The challenge will continue with the bears visiting many more countries around the world onboard flights with various airlines. The bears will also participate in many local and national flying events throughout Ireland this summer and will host a fundraising event in aid of LauraLynn and Dogs Trust in an evening celebrating ‘Women in Aviation’ at the Carlton Hotel, Dublin Airport on the 31st of August.
Commenting on the Aviation Ireland Challenge, the Chief Executive of ASL Aviation Holdings, Dave Andrew said, “We are delighted to be the official sponsor of the Aviation Ireland Challenge. We take immense pride in supporting the Aviation Ireland Challenge and helping Capt. Paddy and Lucky raise awareness for two admirable charities, LauraLynn Children’s Hospice and Dogs Trust.”
Also commenting was the organiser of the Aviation Ireland Challenge, Jason Phelan said, “We are privileged that ASL Aviation Holdings has joined our journey as sponsors of ‘The Adventures of Capt. Paddy & Lucky’. Our globe-trotting VIP bears have just finished a month with ASL Airlines adding eight new counties, bringing the total to 14 visited so far. With ASL Airlines onboard as our sponsor, we can fly higher to promote and raise awareness for our charities, LauraLynn Children’s Hospice and Dogs Trust Ireland. We look forward to working with ASL Airlines over the coming months and seeing where we can take Capt. Paddy & Lucky next”.
