Doing it together?
I was lucky enough to realise a long held ambition to fly on Concorde to JFK and back recently.
Talking to the CC on the flight over I was asking about the long term prospects. I was told that there were no plans at present to retire her, but that the ever increasing maintenance costs were an issue. A break even point of around 32 full fare payers (I was on an upgrade both ways!) was quoted for covering the running/non-maintenance costs. Something backed up in WOK's post above.
However the key point made was that all Concorde decisions were in tandem with Air France ... the innaugural flights, the return to service dates etc.. So the last flights would be the same for both fleets. Part of some original agreement or something. If this is so then a) what is AF's view on the matter, and b) is there any truth in the date of 2007 for the AF Concorde's I read elswhere? Doesn't that tie BA into 2007, if the "Concorde" agreement holds true?
I'm no accountant, but isn't having Concorde on your fleet like invisible income from tourism etc.? It's simple to tally up the running costs, drop in yields elsewhere, etc. but how many punters does it bring to the airlines because of it's fame/notoriety/anorak factor (me!) etc.?
Duncan