COMMENT: Non!
The British Concorde looks like it will make its last revenue flight on Friday 31 October 2003, and the French version at the end of May as things stand. ABTN is appreciative of the fact that at some time Concorde has to go. What is sad is the manner of its going. ABTN has suggested Wednesday 17 December 2003, the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers first flight. Virgin Atlantic says it wants to buy the aircraft. On both accounts British Airways has said ”No”. Or rather it turns out. ”Non”.
It now appears that BA did not have much of a say on the matter The Financial Times got to the crux of the situation quoting Airbus, or if you prefer, France. It wanted out. ”We will absolutely not, as Airbus, support any initiative to put Concorde back into operation by any other operator. I don”t want any ambiguity around that,” said Noel Forgeard, chief executive of Airbus, successor to the original manufacturers Aerospatiale and BAC. Naturally enough financial reasons were stated, but that has never worried the French before.
Lord Marshall, chairman of British Airways, took a slightly different view and said that BA would have been keen to continue operating the plane beyond the end of October if the French had been prepared to share the burden of extra maintenance costs.
Richard Branson of course thrives on publicity and says he wants the aircraft. In a speech to the UK Aviation Club, the Virgin Atlantic chief called for government intervention to persuade BA to disclose its financial operating figures for the supersonic airline. He had already called for the aircraft to be handed over to Virgin Atlantic saying that they were a national asset.
What is very clear is that two views have emerged from British Airways. The engineering and flight crew stance is clear. ”Concorde is going to continue and let”s spend money on it and get it up in the air (they even took the engineering media to New York, a good idea, the BA press office itself managing just one trip, for the Nationals)”. The commercial division outlook was , as far as we can see. ”Concorde is a challenge to our high revenue business and should not be promoted in any way”. ABTN likes to use the term euthanasia. Induced death.
There is little doubt that Concorde will be heavily promoted this summer. A glorious swansong. However it is all a bit late. It should have been encouraged from when the AOC (air operators certificate) was returned. Unless real money is going to be made an extensive Concorde circus is a waste of time and effort.
BA staff are notorious for, if only in public, backing their airline. It come as a shock therefore when Jock Lowe, former chief pilot and commercial manager of Concorde in the late 1990s, said that Air France had always been less interested in maintaining Concorde flights. ”They never made as much money as BA on Concorde. They failed to upgrade the product in the way BA has over the years.”
Mr Lowe said that BA should have invoked the terms of the 1962 treaty on Concorde signed by Britain and France, which obliged them to continue supporting the aircraft even if one wanted to withdraw. BA could make a profit from Concorde for several more years if it promoted it properly. ”The massive demand for tickets since the retirement was announced proves how popular Concorde continues to be.”
Good luck to Branson. There is little doubt that given BA goodwill Virgin Atlantic could operate Concorde from a technical point of view, and providing the numbers added up, make it work commercially too. A sort of Upper, Upper Class. However BA is in the best position to continue with Concorde, at least to the end of the popular pre-Christmas period, or as ABTN has said previously, until 17 December, the 100th anniversary of man”s first acknowledged controlled flight under power. Which brings us back to the French.
Right up to the 1940s the FAI (the Paris based acknowledged world authority on aviation records) would not recognise the Wright Brothers achievement, to the extent that the original Wright Flyer was kept at the Science Museum in London and not in the US (who would only accept FAI rulings).
Back in 1908 Wilbur Wright had to actually cross the Atlantic with his aircraft to prove to French sceptics that controlled flight was the product of the brothers” work. Prospective European (and Brazilian) flyers would have to copy their ideas.
Perhaps even 100 years afterwards it seems that the French will not accept that Americans invented aviation. However Forgeard did leave a way out stating that he would not permit operations ”by any other operator.” British Airways should fly Concorde to December 17 (at least). It might invite Sir Richard Branson, perhaps Forgeard too?