Originally Posted by
mfaff
So when AF informed Airbus they were withdrawing their fleet, Airbus were forced to inform BA that it alone had to carry the entire cost of the design authority contract, plus the fee for its own airframes.
Now I understand that there was some saving on the DA fee as AF and BA birds were not identical (batteries plus a few other electrical items) but broadly speaking BA faced a massive % increase in the fee...which the business case did not cover...
In addition to this, one shouldn't forget the revenue side of BA's operation. As I understand it, this was badly affected by the events of 11 September 2001, sadly in a very direct way. Although the Concorde operation re-started afterwards, there was never a replacement for the lost demand from that customer, so that the double daily was never again viable. And with only a daily service, some more of Concorde's commercial appeal was lost.