Air France will join British Airways in relaunching Concorde if authorities give the go-ahead as expected in the next few months, the French airline's chairman said today.
"I think we can envisage - but it's not for me to say - that the airplane will get its viability certificate back in the summer or autumn," Mr Jean-Cyril Spinetta told the French television news channel LCI.
"If that is the case, both Air France and British Airways will put Concorde back into service," he said.
Concorde flights have been suspended since the Air France Concorde crash last July killed all 109 on board and four people at a hotel on the outskirts of Paris. Air accident investigators have yet to issue their final report.
British Airways said earlier this month it planned to resume commercial flights between London and New York this summer but that complex changes to the jet made it hard to give a precise date for the restart.
Earlier this month, lawyers for most of the relatives of the German victims reached a compensation deal with Air France.
They declined to reveal settlement details, but Air France's insurers have said their offer came close to an overall settlement of around $150 million.