Exhilaration, a twinge of sadness and glasses of Pol Roger Brut Ros�
marked the atmosphere on board British Airways Flight 097 yesterday as the
sleek white Concorde zoomed across the Atlantic for a farewell visit to
Toronto.
Like aging rock stars who, despite slipping sales and other setbacks,
still manage to pump the crowds, BA's fleet of seven Concordes, which
officially retire Oct. 24 after 27 years in the spotlight, are embarked
upon a three-city North American tour.
Travelling as fast as a bullet or twice the speed of sound and at an
altitude of 53,500 feet, the 100-seat supersonic icon, under the command
of Captain Les Brodie, a veteran Concorde pilot, had a near-capacity crowd
aboard.
Passengers had paid between $8,000 and $10,000 before taxes for their
journey into history, among them, John Bitove Jr., former owner of the
NBA's Toronto Raptors, who, along with his wife, three children, brother
and sister-in-law celebrated his 43rd birthday on board. "It's hard to
believe you can travel at Mach 2 and still talk," said Mr. Bitove half way
into the flight. "For me, the speed is the real lure."
Also on board was Ramsheed Mehta, managing director of the
institutional equity desk at BMO Nesbitt Burns, who had won a Globe and
Mail-sponsored contest entitling him to two tickets on the Concorde and
$10,000 spending money in London.
Along with pink champagne, passengers were offered a selection of
superior red and white wines and entr�es such as roast guinea fowl and
truffle stuffing, and grilled filet of veal. The dishes were served up on
Royal Doulton china, albeit with plastic cutlery.
British Airways has a sold-out flight on Concorde that leaves Toronto
tonight for New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. It is the last time the
plane is scheduled to be on Canadian soil.
"This is Concorde, man! This is it," enthused Toronto environmental
consultant John Fahey who, in honour of "the Great Lady of the Skies" wore
a tuxedo throughout the flight. "There's nothing like it. I promised
myself I'd travel on Concorde by the time I was 40 and I just made it. In
12 hours, I'll be 41."
The seats, upholstered in dark blue hide from Connelly -- the company
that also supplies the leather for Rolls-Royce and Jaguar -- are topped
off with cashmere-covered pillows.
Many of my fellow passengers were seldom in their seats as they trained
digital cameras on one another or scanned the cabin in search of that
special shot.
In recent years, BA's Concorde fleet, which has flown more than 2.5
million passengers since service began in 1976, has experienced a decline
in traffic on the New York-London route. The drop has been attributed to
the anemic American economy, which has seen numbers of business travellers
switching to economy seats on major carriers or low-cost airlines.
Following the crash outside Paris of an Air France Concorde in July,
2000, that killed 113, British Airways and Air France grounded their
supersonic fleets for 18 months as each underwent costly modifications and
refurbishment. BA is reported to have spent in excess of $36-million on
the refit of its Concordes but has been unable to lure back former
passengers in sufficient numbers.
Concorde has also been burdened with rising fuel prices and, despite
its elegant design and sophisticated hardware, is a middle-aged bird.
Several of BA's Concordes have encountered technical problems such as
engine failure, burst tires, a broken nose cone and cracked windows.
The result is that high-flying passengers who pay a premium price for
speed have had to cool their heels while the supersonic aircraft in which
they were flying made unscheduled stops.
"You can get away with delaying or diverting other passengers but you
can't do that to Concorde passengers," said an industry source. "Imagine
them sitting in Halifax, where they've been diverted several times
recently, or Cardiff, because of faults. They're waiting for a connection
while the subsonic flight they could have taken first class flies
overhead."
Despite reports that BA's supersonic aircraft weren't to retire until
2007, the date was moved forward after Airbus SAS, which maintains the
planes, announced they'd soon require costly overhauls to keep them
airworthy.
The drive to develop a supersonic passenger airliner first surfaced in
the mid-1950s when the governments of Britain and France focused upon
increased bilateral co-operation. A plan to proceed with actually building
the Concorde was put in place in the early 1960s with the signing of a
Franco-British accord.
"At the time, the superpowers were throwing their prestige dollars and
rubles into the space race," said David Learmount, operations editor of
the London-based aviation magazine Flight International. "Concorde was
Europe's contribution to technological muscle-flexing."
In 1975, a year before supersonic service started from London's
Heathrow airport to Bahrain, as well as other flights to Rio de Janeiro
and Washington, an estimated �11-billion had been invested in the Concorde
project. Service to New York was inaugurated in 1977 despite fierce
protests over the jet's noise levels.
From its inaugural flight, Concorde was not only a technological marvel
but an international icon of glamour, attracting Arab royals, tycoons,
dot-com millionaires and celebrities such as Sting, Joan Collins, Elton
John and Mick Jagger.
Phil Collins used Concorde when he had to perform at Live Aid concerts
in London and Philadelphia on the same day in 1985.
In September, 1999, Diana Ross was arrested and escorted off a BA
Concorde at Heathrow Airport prior to its departure for New York for
allegedly assaulting a female member of the security
staff.
