With airline revenues falling and maintenance costs of the Concorde rising, British Airways and Air France have announced that the last passenger flight of the Concorde will be at the end of October 2003. I believe that the Concorde never actually generated a profit for the airlines, although it was obviously a symbol of prestige and luxury. It’s quite a shame to see it go, although when one considers that the aircraft design is 27 years old they’ve done quite a good job keeping it in service for as long as they have, recent incidents notwithstanding. I think that there will definitely be a market for supersonic passenger transports in the future, but the design will have to be more efficient to make it profitable enough for airlines to operate it. I’m definitely going to miss the Concorde; here’s another page devoted to the Concorde, and here are some pictures of the beautiful aircraft.
