If Concorde is so economically successful, why aren't there more updated versions being built and being flown on more diverse routes? Granted, Concorde is held hostage in the never-ending Euro-US pissing contest. As far as making a profit goes - I'll bet the books wouldn't stand up to close scrutiny -- Maintaining a fleet of 8 very specialized aeroplanes has got to be even more costly than even gold-plated tickets allow. I would imagine that Concorde is kept in impeccable maintenance condition.