British Airways and Air France have both announced that
Concorde will be grounded permanently as from the end of November 2003.
Passenger demand has fallen significantly since the Concorde crash near
Paris in 2000. BA justified their decision by saying that maintenance
costs have become too high for them to continue the service and the global
downturn in demand for all forms of premium travel in the airline industry.
France said “the deterioration of business results from the transatlantic
service”, the aircraft’s only scheduled route.