BA to sell Concorde to Dubai?

[LHR27C]

Hardly...at least the 'ole TriStar earns it's keep, quite unlike the lawn dart AKA Concorde.
Never made a profit...altho it was a 'reasonable' enginerering feat.

Rubbish, Concorde made a healthy profit for BA for many years.

[tubby linton]

As this subject is about Concorde and the Middle East,I went past the Iran air office in London today and they have a model of one in their c/s in the window!

[411A]

Rubbish, Concorde made a healthy profit for BA for many years

Of course it did...after being provided to BA at nearly a cost-free basis.
All aircraft should be so lucky.

[LAS1997]

I think its a good idea for the Concorde to go to Dubai. It has a better future there than here in the UK. BA dont have the money to do anything with her. I am very pleased that she is going to the Middle East. People forget that the first scheduled flight for Concorde in 1976 was to Bahrain, not New York and we should thank the people of the Middle East for their support. OK the route did not last for long, but it was a start.

So as Dubai has the QEII, why not a Concorde too? They have the money to turn it into a major attraction. Good luck to them!

[HZ123]

I to commend the plan of sending it to the middle east. While we are on BA bashing the UK in all has a poor record of keeping its history intact. The UK spends its money in better humanitarian ways housing the weak, lame, and those that cannot work because they speak no English. BA wanted Concorde in the same way we were landed with BAC aircraft so its was scant compensation to get lumbered with yet another a/c that had to be hangared every night at vast costs. Who less could the government have forced to fly it?

[razorrawe]

Surely the plane belongs to the British tax payer as it was just about given to BA They made there money out of it so it should be up to us whats done with it not them trying to make a quick buck because there not making such huge profits as they would like asles

[falcon12]

Move it to Palm Island! Just imagime how long the metal moths would take to reduce it to an unsafe condition with all that sun, sand, salt, spray and rain. Then where's your investment gone.

[gordonroxburgh]

Of course it did...after being provided to BA at nearly a cost-free basis.
All aircraft should be so lucky.

BA bought Concorde for proper money (23M a pop) in the 1970s, Sure BA was state owned and this meant they took 7% of Concorde profits. When the government finally had enough in 1984, BA pains £16.5M to buy the government out.

The government then made a mint when BA was privatised in the 1980s.

Over the course of its life, the best figure is that Concorde made a profit of over one Billion pounds for BA. Eg 50M a year for 20 years. If you assume a 40% load and a seat price of £4000, you take over £200M in revenue.

So Before anyone else jumps up and down, take note of all this and work out why Concorde was important to BA and UK PLC

[BEagle]

For all her faults, I reckon if MrsT had still been PM at the time, 'Skippy' would have been summoned for a no tea / no biscuits handbagging to be told he would keep Concorde flying.....

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

BEagle.. perhaps. But it wouldn't have been for much longer if what BA engineers have told me.

On Wednesday I attended an absolutely superb day at RAeS London to celebrate Concorde's 40th anniversary. A day of presentations, anecdotes, and humour from many who designed, built, maintained, and flew this wonderful aeroplane. Jock Lowe's presentation on 'Operating economics' bears out what Gordon has posted above.

Very well done to all at RAeS who made the day happen!

But BA ex-Concorde engineers I spoke to at the event said it was becoming very difficult to muster sufficient aeroplanes for the service towards the end, such was the unreliability rate. Egine reliability, for instance, was in the order of 1/100 of that of modern fan engines (that includes the intake and nozzle system, the malfunctioning of either being effectively a failed power plant, though the base engine was pulled off the wing for heavy maintenance at very frequent intervals).

It was a superb machine, and we enjoyed it in service to 27 years, which ain't bad.

I'm happy to remember her as she was, almost 3 decades of safe operation with BA, rather than if they'd pushed it a bit longer and risked a not so pleasant end to the service. My real regret is that the economics of developing SST airliners means we're unlikely to see another for a long time yet.

SSD

(Involved with AC at Manchester in our superb new facility. And Manchester's claim for a Concorde? far from only seeing a few diversions, MAN is second only airport to Heathrow for Concorde ops in UK, many of them charters).

[Load Toad]

'Skippy' would have been summoned for a no tea / no biscuits handbagging to be told he would keep Concorde flying.....

She could be a right joker couldn't she - she probably would do that whilst in the next breath she'd totally destroy British manufacturing industry.

[Conc]

BEagle, Here, Here! Concorde and the Spitfire are two of the most iconic aircraft ever and we British should be proud of them. If BA won't keep the old girl at Heathrow fine but find her a good home in the UK.

[BEagle]

ba must not be permitted to move any Concorde to grace the tawdry, nouveau-riche world of the Jumeirah Janes.

ba lost its pride in being the UK's number one airline when it embarked upon the 'world' nonsense and biz-whizz kids starting ruining it.

I will never fly with ba for 2 reasons:

• Dirty Tricks
• The murder of Concorde

[HZ123]

Here at BA we can honestly say we have not missed your business. IF dirty tricks worried you so much then I cannot imagine the stress you must be feeling over the Banking crisis and our honest MP's. You will always be welcomed back.

[3REDS]

I think the Arabs want it in a bid to fly people in to Dubai faster than they are leaving

HZ123

Here at BA we can honestly say we have not missed your business

Really!! BA's share price dosen't reflect your view and why is BA's no longer marketing itself as 'the worlds favorite airline'.

Will the last one to leave please turn off the lights.

[BEagle]

I've no doubt that ba flight and cabin crews do a great job and have high standards.

It's your management with whom I have issues.

So that's 489 Business Class flights over the last 6 years which I've flown with other airlines instead.

I'd sooner fly from anywhere except the awful Thiefrow; however, when I do it's nice to catch a glimpse of the glorious Rocket by the maintenance hangar - and to recall what an astonishing feat of technology it is. But as for that hideous Airslug model in some foreign airline markings squatting like a cuckoo on the Concorde roundabout.....

[MarkD]

HMG could probably buy all the examples back from BA for historic purposes for a thimblefull of what has been spent on reckless banks, not to mention what is spent on so-called art these days.

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

HMG could probably buy all the examples back from BA for historic purposes for a thimblefull of what has been spent on reckless banks, not to mention what is spent on so-called art these days.

Disregarding why HMG would want to do that, or what they'd do with 7 diversely-located Concordes, I think you'll find the contracts between BA and the museums might preclude it. Manchester has spent a great deal of money on its Concorde facility - they would not be best pleased to have the aeroplane sold-out from under them before they have had the opportunity to recoup some of the investment, and I would be surprised if they didn't have contractual protection to prevent that.

[Tempsford]

If it was the only one left in the UK then okay, just cause to question, but it isn't and there's not. Let em have it. Only places we or the French should decline are those who refused overfly or put obstacles in the way of supersonic pasenger flight when the a/c were operating. That would seem to have an element of hyporicy in my opinion. Also, the longevity of the a/c should be reviewed at the locations that they are allocated. Under cover if possible and away from sea water definitely. God knows why someone allowed them to put one in NY next to the Intrepid, but hey-ho what do I know.

Temps

[Skylion]

Beagle: It is worth reminding you that Dirty Tricks was never proven. The only money BA paid to Virgin/Branson was in settlement of a libel case, not dirty tricks. It is time you stopped worrying about it and Heathrow and tried T5 and BA again. You could be missing something, especially the terminal. It really is the best in Europe by far,- and BA live there.