Concorde Permanently Grounded

Concorde, the snub-nosed superjet that once boomed over southeastern Queens, will soon disappear from the skies forever.
Air France and British Airways (BA), the only carriers that operate the jet, announced last week that the precipitous downturn in the airline industry since 9/11 has forced termination of the expensive-to-maintain aircraft.
Rod Eddington, CEO for British Airways, called it "a prudent business decision." BA will end the transatlantic service in October; Air France plans to end it in late May.
Twelve Concordes are presently in operation. Seven are flown by British Airways and five by Air France. Popularity of the service, which began in 1976, suffered a permanent and severe blow in July 2000 when an Air France jet crashed outside of Paris, killing 113 people.
Investigators concluded that a tire was punctured by a stray metal strip on the runway as the plane took off. Rubber pieces that flew into the fuel tank caused it to ignite.
Both the French and English planes were taken out of service until their reinstatement in late 2001. The British jets were refurbished for $20 million and given a more modern look for their return.
Celebrities and highly successful business people came back in time, but not in enough volume to offset the aircrafts exorbitant maintenance costs.
BA said termination of the service will generate over $130 million in write-offs for the year ending March 31. Air France told the media that Concorde had brought profits down $54 million during that time.
The average cost of a one-way ticket aboard one of the glamourous jets is $7,000, mainly because of the speed of travel. New York to London round trip fare aboard a BA flight is about $9,300.
The smaller cabin, which holds only 100 passengers, gives a feeling of exclusivity.
Some of entertainments brightest stars caught a frequent ride: Sting, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Elton John. Prime Minister Tony Blair often flew, as well as Queen Elizabeth and the Duchess of York.
The three-and-a-half hour ride from London to New York means you could land in New York City at a time that is earlier than your departure time in England. The aircraft is capable of flying at twice the speed of sound.
Though passengers loved greatly reduced flight times, many southeastern Queens residents abhorred its thunderous flyovers to Kennedy Airport, its US home.
"I don’t think there’ll be a person in the Rockaways that will miss the Concorde," Jonathan Gaska, district manager of Community Board 14, told Newsday.
"I can’t wait for it to stop," said Shelly Ginis of Belle Harbor. "It makes the fillings in your teeth rattle."
Still, others saw the Concorde as something beautiful and majestic.
"It’s a sad day in many ways," Eddington, told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "Concorde changed the nature of commercial aviation. It revolutionized the way people traveled around the world."
"Never has such a beautiful object been designed and built by man," Jean-Cyril Spinetta, Air France president, told reporters. "This aircraft is not going to stop because it continues to live on in the human imagination."