Concorde to put block on charter operations

Report by Lydia Wilson

Concorde’s charter services will take a back seat when British Airways relaunches the supersonic aircraft’s scheduled services in the spring.

BA is planning Concorde’s comeback for late spring or early summer – at the latest the end of June – but its charter services will not resume until next year as the UK’s national carrier concentrates on rebuilding its scheduled services to New York and Barbados.

A BA spokesman said the company was committed to guaranteeing a regular scheduled service, which meant having an extra Concorde on stand-by to replace the main aircraft in case of hitches. An early reintroduction of Concorde’s charter flights would compromise that back-up, he explained.