Allow me the French side of the story : * (for the sake or arguments )
I understand the BA side of the story is quite different, but allow me nevertheless: .
Concorde was a project of another era :the goal (for France) was to demonstrate to the world that Europe was as good if not better than the USA in manufacturing airplanes. It was political decision to make it was not an economic one.
Forcing cooperation between States on top technologies to counter North American leadership was another one.
And basically you can say it worked on the long run. We have Airbus now, greatly thanks to the Concorde pioneers.
That is how France saw , and basically still sees the Concorde story. not to make money. never was,as De Gaulle said many times, it was, :" Le Prestige de la France "
Concorde was never a profitable aircraft and could never be , the small number made and the hugely expensive support men and machinery needed to manufacture spares for engines and mainframe was huge and coud only be done as the State was subsidinding and paying for this.
Air France did made money for some time with them, because they did not pay for anything . the aircrfat were fee , the maintenance subsidised, fuel was cheap .Load factors were in the low 50's but nobody cared . Opening lines like crazy Caracas, Dakar, Washington, Teheran,etc.. .
In the end years , fuel was expensive and only remained the US routes : first twice a day, then only a single New york daily. with 13 aircraft and 50 or so crews to do that .
Add a few charters ( 2-3 per month on average ) but that was it .
How can it be profitable ?
After the crash the load factors went down further, price of fuel went up , but also 9/11 hit badly . Technical problems too. Remember the Rudders ?
Many JFK-CDG AF flights were cancelled due tech and pax transfered by 747 instead,with not enough First class seats, poor marketing, poor
PR, but that is typical AF .Reliability, delays and cancelations are a problem when you market speed.
If my memory is correct , it was when EADS said they will no longer guarantee the spares , that it sealed the fate of the aircraft . Whether this decision was political or purely EADS , I do not know. But everyone agreed at the time it was time to pull the plug. Including the general public in France . It felt like putting an old dog you loved to sleep. Did not like it, but necessary to avoid further suffereing.
That is in a nutshell how the French side sees the Concorde story.
But still with extreme pride to have build the aircraft ( of course you all know that for the average Frenchman Concorde , like Airbus are French aircraft
