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Why is Concord out ? (Read 665 times)
Jun 3rd, 2003 at 6:22pm

Boris_G   Offline
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Many officials say that Concorde is not gonna fly no more cuz its been crashing alott ,but 747 crash at least 2-3 times eahyear no one putting them out of service??
Or do they realy try to say that Concorde is small and cant carrhy anough enough passengers for such price ??
 

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Reply #1 - Jun 3rd, 2003 at 6:31pm

Oz   Offline
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its not about the crashes. The Concorde is very expensive to operate. maintenance costs are very high especialy these days. also, the ticket prices are too high. But still it was a magnificent aircraft. Anyone heard if Virgin Atlantic is gonna buy some?
 
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Reply #2 - Jun 3rd, 2003 at 6:34pm

Hagar   Offline
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Quote:
Or do they realy try to say that Concorde is small and cant carrhy anough enough passengers for such price ??

That's about it. Concorde was never really viable although it did make some profit after previous heavy losses were written off. The Paris crash caused a loss of confidence from the traditional wealthy passengers & was the final nail in the coffin.
 

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Reply #3 - Jun 3rd, 2003 at 6:36pm

Hagar   Offline
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Quote:
Anyone heard if Virgin Atlantic is gonna buy some?

I don't think this was ever likely to happen. BA & Virgin hate one another's guts. BA would do almost anything to prevent it. IMHO
 

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Reply #4 - Jun 3rd, 2003 at 7:09pm

emh8   Offline
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Perhaps one of our members in the UK can help me out on this, but my understanding is that the decision on whether or not concourde service continues to Great Britain actually lies with Parliament.  If service is to be continued with Parliament backing($$), then they (Parliament) would oversee transfer of the service to the lowest bidder.  In this case there may just be one bidder - Richard Branson.
 
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Reply #5 - Jun 3rd, 2003 at 7:14pm

Paz   Offline
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Quote:
747 crash at least 2-3 times each year

  Is this true? ???
 

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Reply #6 - Jun 3rd, 2003 at 7:14pm

zcottovision   Offline
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I'm not sure it does lie with Parliament - I just think that BA are now making a continual loss with the plane, and this is why they're retiring it. I don't think they're selling them, either - I think they'll just do what Air France are doing and put them off to museums, or something.
 
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Reply #7 - Jun 3rd, 2003 at 7:19pm

Hagar   Offline
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To the best of my knowledge the aircraft belong to BA & Air France. The BA Concordes were sold to them for just £1 each when the company was privatised in 1987, thus writing off £millions of debt. I don't see how this concerns the UK Government unless they were asked to subsidise the service. I'm sure this would be refused outright.
 

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Reply #8 - Jun 3rd, 2003 at 7:53pm

FSTipster   Offline
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Hagar is absolutely right.

The government's involvement with Concorde ended when they offloaded them to BA at the aformentioned price of £1.

Whilst this might seem ridiculously cheap, it should be borne in mind that what BA were buying at the time was a huge loss making machine. They effectively sold the debt for £1 throwing the concordes in as compensation.

It's also worth noting that by some rather shallow thinking in my opinion, that's the price that Richard Branson offered BA for them a month or so ago. Needless to say, the offer was refused.

Maybe Mr Branson will eventually discover that they did him a favour. Concorde uses a very special paint that stretches (as does concorde in flight) without cracking. It's EXTREMELY expensve stuff. The fact is that it would probably have cost Virgin more than the aircraft themselves are worth just to put their own paintjob on, never mind fuel them up.
 

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Reply #9 - Jun 3rd, 2003 at 9:37pm

Rifleman   Offline
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So bottom line is ....................

                      .......................................

                                     ..........................................

as usual...............................
MONEY !
 

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Reply #10 - Jun 3rd, 2003 at 10:05pm

FSTipster   Offline
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I think you can safely say it's been a long time since it was anything else.

The depression in the aviation industry as a whole hasn't helped but it would seem that running a "flagship" aircraft for pure prestige value just isn;t cost effective any more.

At over £4,800 a ticket one way Heathrow to New York, I'd be surpised if it was flying at anywhere near capacity anyway these days.
 

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Reply #11 - Jun 4th, 2003 at 5:01am

Craig.   Offline
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ok simply put branson went to the government asking for help but as they said, once BA went private it became none of their business and branson was on his own. i dont know what this crashing all the time is about, one crash, and a few incidents.
the other problem is Airbus, air france went to them and said they couldnt afford the parts anymore and that the parts they had were becoming less and less, it got to a point where BA had to give AF a few of their rudders, and now need them back to keep concorde flying till oct. airbus then decided after AF pulled out of the deal to stop supplying the parts to BA because it wouldnt have been an affordable option, as it has always been known it needed two companys to keep it flying. the whole concorde being bought for £1 is alot more complex as others have been stating, bransons been spouting it around like nobodys business because he knows the general public wouldnt know any differant and it would make him look good and BA bad, when in reality BA have spent billions on the plane since its introduction, the special lounges the upgrades to the planes,  the licenses it needed to fly some of the places it did and so on. as big a loss as it is, in the end BA and AF will only benifit from it being gone thats for sure and branson had no intention of actually getting hold of the plane, it was simply another piece of publicity. airbus told him to get lost when he came to them BA told him the same and so did airfrance.
 
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Reply #12 - Jun 4th, 2003 at 6:02am

Hagar   Offline
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I'm not sure why you all seem to dislike Richard Branson so much. OK, he's an entrepreneur but also a highly successful businessman. BA did their best to destroy all competion when the smaller airlines first started threatening them. This was quite ruthless & with a combination of underhand tricks & untruths in their advertisng they succeeded in forcing Laker Airways out of business. http://airlines.afriqonline.com/airlines/781.htm

This was later proven in court but didn't help the hundreds of people, some of my friends among them, who lost their jobs as a result. The ruthlessness of the then BA management is comparable with the way M$ operate. Good luck to Branson & others like him I say..........!
 

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Reply #13 - Jun 4th, 2003 at 7:48am

Craig.   Offline
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i dislike branson so much because he doesnt have a clue what he is really doing, his trains are among the worst on the rails, his planes arnt exactly great either,  and yet the money he could use improving these things is being spent on islands for his employees and a new toys for himself. when stars have been abusive to his staff on his planes or just being a nuscience, he doesnt bring about legal action like he should, he goes around saying, oh well they are welcome on my planes anytime they want. he is a pompus assh**e in my opinion
 
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Reply #14 - Jun 4th, 2003 at 7:59am

Hagar   Offline
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Craig. You are entitled to your opinion as I am to mine. Wink
I prefer competition to monopolies any time.
 

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