Air Malta sweethearts David and Margaret Wright have returned to Malta for a holiday after living in the US since 1983.
Both were among Air Malta's first employees when the airline started operations in 1974. Capt. Wright started as a first officer and later became a captain and his wife was an air stewardess.
They recalled training at the Corinthia Hotel, in Attard, with 23 cabin crew on one side and the nine foreign captains, first officers and engineers on the other. Maltese pilots started being trained in Karachi soon after.
Although Air Malta first flew on April 1, 1974, Mrs Wright's first flight was on April 5 to Frankfurt.
"There was only one passenger... and six cabin crew: A captain, a first officer and an engineer... We had nothing to do and it was fun..."
Capt. Wright's first flight on Air Malta was to Rome on April 2. Although the flight was not full, there was a decent passenger load.
The couple recalled that although some flights were empty in the beginning, they soon started filling up. With its Boeings 720Bs, Air Malta used to fly to London, Birmingham, Manchester, Rome, Frankfurt, Paris and Tripoli.
Capt. Wright said that he had been eyeing-up the stewardess for quite some time and finally asked her out while on a flight to London. They first dated in July 1974. Although Mrs Wright used to tease her husband that there was no food for him on flights, she had never looked at him as a prospective boyfriend.
But after their first date, they never looked back.
"It was a full moon and we went to Marsascala..." Capt. Wright recalls.
They were married in 1976 at the Capuchins church in Floriana. Their wedding reception was at the Verdala Hotel, in Rabat.
The guests included their families and Air Malta colleagues.
The new family settled in Malta and lived on the island until 1983 by which time Capt. Wright received a job offer in the US and decided to leave aviation. His last flight was with Air Malta. Mrs Wright had stopped working some time before her wedding.
The Wrights, who have a 30-year-old daughter, have not been to Malta for the past 18 years but during this visit they managed to get together with Air Malta captains Lawrence Gatt, Joe Agius and Joe Farrugia, who were Capt. Wright's colleagues when he served with the airline.