The Concorde’s final flight was from New York to Heathrow on November 26, 2003. In April 2003, Air France and British Airways simultaneously announced that they would retire Concorde due to the slump in air travel following September 11, rising maintenance costs and low passenger numbers still due in part to the tragic Concorde accident that killed 113 people in July 2000 and grounded the entire fleet for one year.
READ: The history of the Concorde: From its first flight to its last.
The Concorde Club has put forward a tentative date of 2019 for the first flight of the decomissioned aircraft which will be 50 years after its maiden journey (see video below).
Two projects, the ‘London Project’ and the ‘Paris project’ are being planned by the group prior to the first flight in 2019.
The ‘London Project, will see a Concorde on display on a platform on the Thames by the end of 2016. Onboard will be a restaurant for visitors and with an additional admission charge of £16 per head, it is hoped the funding can help with the second project.
The ‘Paris Project’ would see a Concorde based at Le Bourget airport in Paris, with a redesigned interior and exterior, used for charter flights as well as for functions and fly-pasts.
Writing on the group’s website, club president Paul James said: ‘We are in the process of compiling a new business plan based solely on a Return to Flight project.
‘Since November 26, 2003, this has been the dream of the global Concorde fraternity. We toyed with the idea years ago but quickly realised that the only way sufficient finance would be forthcoming was by proving to potential investors that we as a group could create a less ambitious but commercially viable Concorde project.’
He added: ‘Now that money is no longer the problem it’s over to those who can help us make it happen, without financial risk to themselves. This is where the global Concorde fraternity must keep up the pressure, as time is running out.’
