I'm Mr Angry about this. The British taxpayer paid for those aircraft and it's pretty obvious that the majority of British taxpayers want to see them flying if it's at all possible.

Now I'm no special fan of Mr Branson, but if he wasn't just doing a publicity stunt and he genuinely was making an offer to TRY to keep them flying, the British taxpayer should INSIST that he's given the chance no matter what British Airways wants to do with the planes.

Sending them off to a**-hole parts of the world where they will just sit and rot I would have thought was NOT part of the deal broached on behalf of the British taxpayer when they were originally handed over to BA.

I see the first one was flown off to Manchester today where it will be ripped apart by bl**dy engineering students for cripes sake!

I'm with RollerBall on this. I'm fed up to the back teeth with hearing about the £billions that sacred cow BA put into the aircraft. These were normal operating costs, no different from those incurred by any airline with any type of aircraft. Running an airline is incredibly expensive. The development was already complete & Concorde was ready for service when BA "purchased" it, paid for by me & millions of other British & French taxpayers. This was something special, not only the most beautiful thing in the air & a marvel of technology but also belonging to each one of us & something to be proud of.

Now BA & Air France have no further use for Concorde I think our wishes should have been taken into account. OK, so they have contrived with Airbus to make it impossible to continue flying but at least we should have some say in the disposal of the aircraft. It seems to me that they want to wash their hands of it ASAP before anyone has the chance to throw a spanner in the works.

no offense hagar, but BA didnt  ever say they had no more use for it, they never worked with airbus to make it impossible to fly. Hell they even gave AirFrance the spare parts they needed to keep concorde flying as long as they did. now ok what they are doing with it is wrong. but lets face it, it is their aircraft in the end(no looking into the past or bringing up costs or anything) it basically is their aircraft and can do whatever they want with it. Be thankfull they didnt just dump it in some desert to rot.
As for another company supplying parts, airbus looked into it at some point but they then said that they would end up being called into help so much it wasnt worth it. Remember Concorde isnt like any other plane flying in commercial service today. So no its costs involved are not like any other airline its repairs arnt like any other airline would have to deal with, hell concordes cost alone are prob higher than the entire ryan air or Easyjet costs per year, before BA add into the rest of their fleet.
Would i like to see it fly still, Of course i would, but hands up here who could ever afford to fly on it and pay out £5000 for something that would last 3 hours, £8000 for a return. and hands up those of us who are directly affected by this plane day in and day out? Not trying to be an ass about it, but on a whole very few people gave a damn about this plane untill it was announced it would be retired. and i can gaurentee you the majority of this country would be seriously PO'd if they had to take a tax rise to pay to keep it in the air.
Not trying to cause problems but just trying to look at the realistic side of it. sometimes life isnt fair, but be thankful you can at least go see it in a museum.

as for the low cost things, right now thats the only way most airlines can stay in business, BA united delta american airlines, heck even virgin are all going through a rough patch and are fighting to losses to an absolut minimum.

Craig. As you probably realise by now I'm no fan of BA. From over 35 years experience in support & maintainance of the airline industry I know exactly what the operating costs are. Until recently BA were operating Concorde at a profit, that's after the taxpayer paid for its development & handed it to them on a plate. They have never done the British people any favours believe me.

This whole sad episode reminds me of the unscrupulous property developers who bulldoze listed buildings or hack down protected trees to make way for their blocks of concrete. Once something rare & precious is destroyed you can never replace it no matter how much you punish or fine the culprits.

Well I suppose it was an impossible dream but I had hoped for a little more support from our government. They washed their hands of it as usual. I'm disappointed but knowing how much notice they take of public opinion I'm not surprised.

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Touche......! Hoist by my own petard. I think it was me who pointed that out to you - not so long ago either.  LOL
Despite this being true I'm sure the government could have leaned on BA a little if they so wished. My point is that they couldn't care less what happens to it.

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I'm enjoying it too. I really can't comment - except to point out that there's 2 examples in your last post where the word "too" is appropriate.

Cheers Craig. LOL