BBC- British Airways Retires Concorde
RIP Concorde...................... simply the best.
From the BBC
Concorde to retire by end 2003
British Airways will confirm on Thursday that it is retiring its supersonic Concorde service, the BBC has learned.
Passenger numbers have never recovered since the crash near Paris in 2000 and the aircraft no longer makes a profit.
Concorde is expected to cease flying in the autumn, probably when BA's summer timetable ends on the last weekend of October, BBC transport correspondent Simon Montague said.
Air France has made no comment on whether it is close to pulling its Concorde service, after reports it would retire the service by 2007.
Concorde has been blighted by a rash of problems.
Three years ago 113 people were killed in the Paris crash.
Engine failure
At the end of last year it also emerged engine failure forced one New York-bound plane to turn back to London and another flight was forced to cut its speed when cracks appeared in a window.
Currently, BA's Concordes are certified to fly until 2009.
Both Air France and BA Concorde services have been badly affected in recent months by the American economic downturn and the Iraqi conflict.
The plane, born out a joint Anglo-French project, and developed by engineers at Filton, near Bristol, operates daily out of London Heathrow and Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport to North America.
It cruises at around 1350 mph at an altitude of up to 60,000ft (11 miles) meaning a crossing from Europe to New York takes less than three and a half hours.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) and the Civil Aviation Authority both say Concorde remains safe to fly.
The Paris crash was blamed on debris on the runway which punctured a tyre.
Last edited by Goforfun; 10th April 2003 at 04:25.