FRANCE/UK: Supersonic flying courtesy of the Concorde is about to end as British Airways and Air France announced yesterday its withdrawal because flagging passenger demand could not cover its rising costs.
The decision to retire the needle-nosed jet, the world's first and only supersonic passenger aircraft, to museums brings to an end 27 years of service.
It also brings down a potent symbol of Franco-British engineering prowess - and the jet-set lifestyles of the rich and famous who flew on Concorde.
"Concorde changed the way people travelled," British Airways chief executive Mr Rod Eddington told reporters. "With its going, we must lose some of the romance from aviation."
But the costs associated with the fuel-guzzling jet had become too onerous for the only two airlines who fly the 100-seat plane. Both carriers said falling revenues and rising maintenance costs was behind their decisions.
Air France, Europe's second-largest airline, said it was halting Concorde flights from May 31st, while British Airways, Europe's largest airline, said it would stop commercial flights in October.
The jet's demise comes nearly three years after the crash of an Air France Concorde shortly after takeoff from Roissy Charles De Gaulle Airport near Paris in July 2000. The crash, which killed 113 people, forced both airlines to ground the jets for over a year.
When they resumed transatlantic service in November 2001, the global economy was slowing and the civil aerospace market heading into its worst ever downturn following the September 11th attacks in the US.
Although the Concorde has always been linked to champagne-quaffing, lobster-dining celebrities with money to spare, the reality is much different. Mr Eddington said more than two-thirds of Concorde's passengers were business travellers.
"Recently, we were filling only about 20 per cent of the seats," Air France chairman Mr Jean-Cyril Spinetta told a news conference.
British Airways said retiring its Concordes would result in £84 million of write-off costs for the year which ended March 31st, 2003, while Air France estimated the cost of retirement at up to €60 million.
The average price for a Concorde flight from London to New York is $6,980 (£4,500 pound). - (Reuters)