BA declines Virgin's upped offer for Concorde.

Sunday, 22 June 2003 12:00 AM

According to media reports, British Airways has firmly rejected Sir Richard Branson's five million pound offer to buy its five Concorde aircraft, stating it would retire the supersonic jet as planned in October.

A British Airways (BA) spokeswoman said: 'Concorde is not for sale. Our position is absolutely unchanged on that. We're clear that Concorde will not fly commercially beyond October 2003.'

The spokesman said Concorde no longer had a viable commercial future because Airbus, supplier of Concorde's spare parts, would not service them beyond October.

'As the aircraft gets older it costs more and more to maintain and therefore it's just not viable,' she said.

Virgin substantially increased its bid for the five remaining Concorde aircraft from five pounds to five million on Sunday.

'We hope we succeed but ultimately, that ball is in BA's court,' Sir Richard said.

Despite the upped offer, BA showed no sign of accepting the deal. The Virgin boss will be disappointed not to clinch it. Sir Richard planned to fly the hooked-nosed jet planes to New York, Barbados and Dubai.

In 2000, a Concorde plane crashed soon after take-off in Paris, killing 113 people. Stationed on the ground for a year afterwards, safety issues remained, leading BA to finally take the jets permanently out of circulation.

Air France, the only other airline to fly Concorde, stopped its commercial services last month.

There may be a glimmer of hope for plane enthusiasts on the horizon.

Virgin has pledged 1 million pounds to keep some of the aircraft in semi-commercial use and BA has said it may keep one plane in active use for special occasions and airshows such as the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

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