Au Revoir, Concorde

British Airways and Air France said Thursday they will take their Concorde jets out of service later this year, ending more than a quarter century of supersonic commercial travel.

Both airlines blamed falling passenger demand and rising maintenance costs for their decision to ground the needle-nosed jets that epitomized the economic and technological confidence of an earlier era.

The retirement of the service "will be permanent as of October this year," BA spokeswoman Sara John said. The carrier didn't give a date for its last scheduled flight.

Air France, the only other airline to fly Concorde, said its last scheduled flight would be on May 31, and the program would shut down at the end of October.

"It's a sad day in many ways, but we've decided to retire our Concorde fleet in October this year," BA's chief executive, Rod Eddington, told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "If you're laying people off and telling people in your business to tighten your belt, senior executives then find it inconsistent to go to the airport and get on Concorde rather than subsonic aircraft."

"This decision is motivated by deteriorating economic results ... observed over the past months and which accelerated since the beginning of the year," Air France said in a statement.

Eddington said the decision to retire Concorde after 27 years of commercial service was not connected to possible safety fears arising from a crash outside Paris that killed 113 people in 2000.

"We have complete safety at Concorde, complete confidence in its ability to fly safely," he said.

On July 25, 2000, an Air France jet, spewing flames, crashed into a hotel outside Paris just minutes after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle airport. All 100 passengers, mostly German tourists, were killed along with the nine crew members and four people on the ground.

BA suspended its Concorde service several weeks after the crash. Both airlines reintroduced supersonic flights in November 2001.

Concorde first flew in March 1969 and entered commercial service with British Airways in January 1976. More than 2.5 million passengers have since flown on BA's supersonic jets.

The plane was a commercial failure, partly because no country would permit it to fly over land because of loud engines, and partly because the fuel-guzzling Concorde carries just 100 passengers, making it less economical than a jumbo jet. Only 20 were built, with 12 remaining in service.

But the delta-winged, needle-nosed plane conferred matchless prestige on British Airways and Air France, drawing celebrities and business people who thought their time was valuable enough to justify fares of more than 6,000 pounds ($8,700) for a round trip across the Atlantic.

The Concorde flies faster than any other commercial aircraft, racing between Europe and New York in under four hours. Its fastest New York-London crossing was completed in just 2 hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds.