CMOT TMPV wrote:
Once upon a time -- around about 10/22/03 09:37 --
possibly wrote:

"Richard J." wrote in message
...

Final flight *from* London is provisionally scheduled to be 17
November, when G-BOAF is flown to Filton, her place of birth.
Details at http://www.concordesst.com/retire/diary.html

This final flight will probably be delayed now because BA wont be
officially announcing the final retirement places for Concorde until
next week at the earliest.

Apparently there's some contractual problem with one of the locations
and they want to sort that out first before they announce any of the
sites. Airbus (who will officially be the company given the
Bristol-Filton Concorde as it's their bit of land she'll be put on)
are a bit peeved though as they'd already started planning a big
welcome home party for her on that date.

**** on Airbus. They're all ****. If it wasn't for them Concorde
could still be flying. The ultimate reason is that they don't want to
make parts. AF was out regardless, but BA maintains that were Airbus
to produce parts and support the aircraft, Concorde will still be
flying.

Companies will generally do anything if you pay them enough. Presumably BA
wouldn't pay what it would take to change Airbus's mind, probably because
there doesn't seem to be an ongoing demand from passengers. BA have halved
the number of flights to New York to only one per day.

Basically, Concorde is an outstandingly beautiful plane and an amazing
phenomenon, but as a commercial aircraft it is a disaster. It was
horrendously expensive to buy (BA were subsidised by the Government, as were
Air France presumably). It makes an operational profit only by charging
very expensive fares which only a few can afford. It generates enormous
pollution, both from its excessive fuel consumption and appalling noise.
And it's the least safe commercial airliner currently flying, in terms of
fatalities per million passenger miles.

I shall be looking out for the three Concordes on Friday afternoon like
thousands of others, but I also think that it was a sensible decision to
retire them this year.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)