Posted from my new computer: Farewell to era of supersonic passenger travel as final Concordes land – When I posted about it a few months ago, I still couldn’t believe the Concorde was no more, but today one of the most impressive machines ever created by men says good bye and one my “things to do before I die” will pass to the list of the “things I won’t be able to do”. Maybe they will come up with a more powerful plane that won’t cost so much to keep up with… Let’s hope for better things!
I think the thing that pisses me off the most is that Concorde isn’t being taken out of service because it’s too expensive to run or there isn’t the demand to fill it. It’s being taken out of service because BA’s other transantlantic seats aren’t selling well and they want to transfer their Concorde passengers to other flights to fill them. Strikes me that they’ve lost one of their biggest advantages in decommissioning Concorde, ie, the short flying time. Regular travellers have no reason to fly with BA at all now and they’ve lost the custom of all the other people for whom a flight on Concorde was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I’ll be amazed if taking Concorde out of service fills the empty seats on their other trans-atlantic flights.
The other thing that pisses me off is the way they refuse to seel the planes to Richard Branson Of Virgin – he would use them. BA were GIVEN the planes by the government, maybe they ought to be made to hand them back so the government can pass them on to an organisation which will use them.
It does seem like a step backwards especially when it all seemed so futuristic in the begining.
Hey! Flying the Concorde was also on my to-do list, too! Someday, Bea!!! Rumor has it that the guy who owns Virgin Atlantic wants to buy just one of the planes.