LONDON - British Airways Plc spurned a five million pound ($8.4 million) bid for its Concorde aircraft from rival Virgin Atlantic Airways on Sunday, and said it would retire the supersonic jet as planned in October.
"Concorde is not for sale. Our position is absolutely unchanged on that," a British Airways (BA) spokeswoman told Reuters. "We're clear that Concorde will not fly commercially beyond October 2003."
Earlier on Sunday, Virgin raised its bid for BA's five remaining Concorde aircraft to five million pounds from its previous offer of just five pounds.
"We have operators ready to help us keep it flying and would serve New York, Barbados and Dubai, a new destination for the plane," Virgin Chairman Richard Branson said in a statement.
A joint British-French venture, Concorde first took off in 1969 and can fly at twice the speed of sound, or around 2,100 kilometres per hour.
But despite cutting trans-Atlantic journeys to three hours, demand for the high-priced service has fallen in recent years, while the costs of operating the fleet have sharply risen.
The famous hooked-nosed jet was also dealt a heavy blow in 2000 by a crash shortly after take-off in Paris which killed 113 people. The planes were grounded for over a year afterwards.
Air France, the only other airline to fly Concorde, stopped commercial flights last month.
If snubbed, Virgin said it would ask BA to join it in forming a charitable trust that would keep at least two of the supersonic planes in semi-commercial service. Virgin pledged to donate one million pounds towards the trust.
But the BA spokeswoman said it was not feasible to continue commercial flights because Airbus, the aircraft manufacturer that supplies Concorde's spare parts, has said it would not support them beyond October.
"As the aircraft gets older it costs more and more to maintain and therefore its just not viable," she said.
BA said it was still finalising its plans for the aircraft following its retirement.
"One of the things we're considering is the feasibility of keeping one aircraft flying for airshows or special occasions such as the Queen's birthday or events similar to last year's Golden Jubilee," the spokeswoman said.
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