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CNN Live At Daybreak
End of Era in Aviation History
Aired October 24, 2003 - 05:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Today marks the end of an era in aviation history. British Airways Concorde leaves New York this morning on its final flight to London.
CNN's Paula Hancocks live at Heathrow Airport just outside of London -- and, Paula, I can actually remember when the Concorde first took off.
It was something.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It certainly was, Carol, yes. And you can probably hear in the background another Concorde has just taken off. It will be going around the Bay of Biscay in the Mediterranean and then coming back later on this afternoon. There's another one coming from Scotland. But, of course, the one we will all be watching is the one leaving from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York in just under an hour and a half.
There'll be a lot of VIPs on that flight, a lot of celebrities. The most celebrity like, of course, will be our Richard Quest, who will be talking to us a little later on about exactly what that was like.
Then we have a Concorde behind me, as well, to see exactly what it looks like. Beautiful on the ground as well as in the air. The classic delta style wings, the needle nose, it really is very recognizable whether it is on the ground or in the air.
There will be a lot of sad people today, in particular, those celebrities who take Concorde a tremendous amount of times, those business tycoons -- Richard Quest, for one, of course. So it really is a very historic day -- Carol.
COSTELLO: How much are people paying to fly on the final flights of the Concorde jets?
HANCOCKS: Well, there have been all sorts of prices going around. Of course, some of the usual business tycoons will be given these tickets because they have been such good customers. Some people are saying they are around $11,000, $12,000 for a ticket. But then you consider the normal price for a ticket on Concorde was, of course, $8,000. So it was very prohibitive.
I spoke to the chief executive, Rod Eddington, of British Airways earlier on this morning, and that is the reason why Concorde is being taken out of service. It's so expensive to run. Fuel costs, maintenance costs are just too high. And there just aren't the amount of people waiting to spend $8,000 for a ticket anymore. That's the reason it's being taken out of the skies -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, I can certainly understand that.
You know, perhaps the saddest thing, though, this is such a high tech jet, so much more high tech than the jets, you know, normal people fly every day, those of us who can't afford 8,000 bucks a ticket. But you would think that they would have figured out a way to bring down those costs for the Concorde to save it.
HANCOCKS: It's true, yes. I mean this is one of the very few examples of technology not failing, technology being way ahead of its time but still being stopped, if you like. It is the cost. Fuel is so expensive. These Concordes burn up at least twice the amount of fuel per hour as a B.A. 747 does. So you can imagine how expensive that is with the petrol prices being as they are.
The maintenance costs, as well. It's the 1950s, 1960s technology in these Concordes. It's just so expensive to replace the parts.
Other people have been trying to create a supersonic equivalent of Concorde, but they just can't do it cheaply enough. And when you haven't got the people that are willing to pay those ridiculous prices to go onto the Concorde, then it's just not economically viable.
COSTELLO: Yes.
Paul Hancocks reporting live from Heathrow this morning.
Many thanks.
Of course, as Paula said, our Richard Quest will be one of the pampered passengers aboard the Concorde's final flight. I wonder how much he paid for his ticket? We'll ask him. He'll be live in our next hour of DAYBREAK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 24, 2003 - 05:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Today marks the end of an era in aviation history. British Airways Concorde leaves New York this morning on its final flight to London.
CNN's Paula Hancocks live at Heathrow Airport just outside of London -- and, Paula, I can actually remember when the Concorde first took off.
It was something.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It certainly was, Carol, yes. And you can probably hear in the background another Concorde has just taken off. It will be going around the Bay of Biscay in the Mediterranean and then coming back later on this afternoon. There's another one coming from Scotland. But, of course, the one we will all be watching is the one leaving from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York in just under an hour and a half.
There'll be a lot of VIPs on that flight, a lot of celebrities. The most celebrity like, of course, will be our Richard Quest, who will be talking to us a little later on about exactly what that was like.
Then we have a Concorde behind me, as well, to see exactly what it looks like. Beautiful on the ground as well as in the air. The classic delta style wings, the needle nose, it really is very recognizable whether it is on the ground or in the air.
There will be a lot of sad people today, in particular, those celebrities who take Concorde a tremendous amount of times, those business tycoons -- Richard Quest, for one, of course. So it really is a very historic day -- Carol.
COSTELLO: How much are people paying to fly on the final flights of the Concorde jets?
HANCOCKS: Well, there have been all sorts of prices going around. Of course, some of the usual business tycoons will be given these tickets because they have been such good customers. Some people are saying they are around $11,000, $12,000 for a ticket. But then you consider the normal price for a ticket on Concorde was, of course, $8,000. So it was very prohibitive.
I spoke to the chief executive, Rod Eddington, of British Airways earlier on this morning, and that is the reason why Concorde is being taken out of service. It's so expensive to run. Fuel costs, maintenance costs are just too high. And there just aren't the amount of people waiting to spend $8,000 for a ticket anymore. That's the reason it's being taken out of the skies -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, I can certainly understand that.
You know, perhaps the saddest thing, though, this is such a high tech jet, so much more high tech than the jets, you know, normal people fly every day, those of us who can't afford 8,000 bucks a ticket. But you would think that they would have figured out a way to bring down those costs for the Concorde to save it.
HANCOCKS: It's true, yes. I mean this is one of the very few examples of technology not failing, technology being way ahead of its time but still being stopped, if you like. It is the cost. Fuel is so expensive. These Concordes burn up at least twice the amount of fuel per hour as a B.A. 747 does. So you can imagine how expensive that is with the petrol prices being as they are.
The maintenance costs, as well. It's the 1950s, 1960s technology in these Concordes. It's just so expensive to replace the parts.
Other people have been trying to create a supersonic equivalent of Concorde, but they just can't do it cheaply enough. And when you haven't got the people that are willing to pay those ridiculous prices to go onto the Concorde, then it's just not economically viable.
COSTELLO: Yes.
Paul Hancocks reporting live from Heathrow this morning.
Many thanks.
Of course, as Paula said, our Richard Quest will be one of the pampered passengers aboard the Concorde's final flight. I wonder how much he paid for his ticket? We'll ask him. He'll be live in our next hour of DAYBREAK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
