[justmedep]

Concord was actually a cash cow for all airlines who had them. The only reason why airlines stopped using Concord was because of the crash and the inherent safety issues that were found. But the actual business model worked - limited in scope but it was highly profitable.

“That said, the airlines that flew the Concorde did make a profit. Concorde was only ever purchased by two airlines: BA and Air France. While the concept of the Concorde might not have been a worldwide hit, it was certainly a good market fit for these two airlines at the time.”

Overall it was obviously a money looser because of the high development costs (paid for by the governments).

[anovikov]

It worked because not just the development costs were paid for by the government, but acquisition costs were, too. Planes were given to the airlines for free, completely paid for by the states.

Also, only be BA made good profit on it and only after mid-1980s. Air France could barely break even.

If not the PR effect that put those airlines above all others as the only ones flying supersonically, they'd never make any sense to either of them.

These days, they'd certainly not be viable as private planes are now much more available and much cheaper than they used to be back in the day and these save a lot more time than supersonic flights. BA fare for LHR-JFK roundtrip was 10K pounds back in 2000, $15.2K at the average exchange rate, that's $28K inflation adjusted! Who'd pay that kind of money today for a commercial flight?

[Jakob]

Not taking away from your point, just for comparison:

A British Airways first class LHR-JFK roundtrip is $10K today for an 8h flight. Supersonic would be 3h.

[WalterBright]

> Who'd pay that kind of money today for a commercial flight?

Government people. I remember Kissinger flying on it.

A first class ticket on the Titanic would be $50,000 today.

[Telemakhos]

> Who'd pay that kind of money today for a commercial flight?

Nobody. That's part of Boom's plan: they want to make the Overture jet cheap enough to fly that tickets will cost about what business class costs on regular intercontinental flights. They're keeping the problems of the Concorde in mind as part of the design process.

[usrusr]

> Who'd pay that kind of money today for a commercial flight?

People willing to throw money at connecting with others who do the same thing. That was the main value proposition back then I think, getting from continent to continent in a short time has never been more than a tangential benefit. Of course this type of business only really works when everybody involved claims the opposite.