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By: 22nd June 2003 at 21:06 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-You beat me to it by 3 minutes :D
By: 22nd June 2003 at 22:07 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-lol - story in full!!
Last Updated: Sunday, 22 June, 2003, 10:08 GMT 11:08 UK
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Branson 'in new £5m Concorde bid'
Concorde is due to be grounded in October
Virgin airline boss Sir Richard Branson is renewing his attempt to buy five now-defunct Concorde supersonic airliners from British Airways with a £5m offer, newspapers say.
After its first bid offering just a pound apiece for the aircraft - the amount BA paid the government for the planes in 1984 - fell on deaf ears, Virgin turned to the government to intervene, but that plea, too, failed to get anywhere.
Now, though, Sir Richard is renewing his bid, reports in the Sunday press claim - partly, according to the Sunday Times, because of public clamour to keep the iconic planes flying.
But his efforts are likely to go unrewarded, the Observer says, not least because BA would be deeply reluctant to hand such a huge publicity coup to its arch-rival.
The airline said it is considering keeping one plane in flight-ready condition, for special occasions and airshows.
End of an era?
As it stands, BA will stop flying Concorde to New York in October after more than three decades, because the service is unprofitable.
Five planes fly the three-hour route, which - thanks to the fact that New York is five hours behind London in time-zone terms - gets passengers to the US seemingly two hours before they took off.
A further two planes are non-operational, and Virgin is believed to want them for free as part of the £5m offer, as sources for spare parts.
If the offer were successful, flights to New York and Barbados would continue, Sir Richard told the Sunday Times, and Dubai would be added as a new destination
By: 22nd June 2003 at 23:09 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Come on Richard you can do it! Mind you £1mil still seems a relitively small amount.
By: 22nd June 2003 at 23:23 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Yeah but its alot better than the £1 a piece offer! But whatever he offers he will never get them or even one. I have said it so many times before... BA dont want to see someone get more use and make a profit with them than they did. Shame on BA! :mad:
By: 23rd June 2003 at 01:09 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-I would love to see Concorde go to Virgin. I so badly want to see her continue flying commercial routes. However I don't think it will happen either. £1M is too low...especially considoring offers made by museums around the globe and the initial value of Concorde plus however much its increased by with age (I spose its a 'classic airliner' now!)
I love Branson's style but, as you've said BA are too concerned with the effect on them of selling to Virgin. Quite rightly so aswell... I'd love to see Concorde continue flying commercially but not as much as I'd want BA to continue healthily as our national flag carrier. (bringing fares down a bit would be great Mr BA!)
I hope part of the 'bowing out' tribute flights include one final pleasure day at LBA... I'd do (almost) anything to fly Concorde.
Regards
BEN
By: 23rd June 2003 at 04:55 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Is anything stopping him from trying to get them from Air France?
By: 23rd June 2003 at 07:59 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-I will say that concorde is an end of an era, and that it is a true classic of our skies, but, at the end of day what comes up must come down and £1m per plane I would find very cheeky and rather an insult, these aircraft could easily fetch 50 times more than that just because of what they are and what they resemble.
I don't see where BA's flight prices are expensive, as I travel to the US around six times per year, we always see on the internet Virgin prices are around £100+ more than BA's. Also BA have quite a few deals throughout the year, World offers, Daily mail flights, annual sales and shareholder discount after november:D
So I wouldn't expect there to be cheap concorde flights going for around £600 if they were with Virgin, their battlepaln would be offer loads of cheap flights across the board for one month and then slowley bump the prices back up to todays or £100 cheaper.
They've done it before they'll do it again.:cool:
By: 23rd June 2003 at 11:02 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-The fact that he's offering £1m per aircraft is not the point. The point is that he's offering 1 million times as much as what BA paid for the same product.
By: 23rd June 2003 at 11:13 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Are BA really in such a strong position as to knock back £5 million quid from anyone ?
By: 23rd June 2003 at 11:14 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-BA are definitly being selfish but then again they do own the concordes therefore they have no obligations to sell them to virgin. If virgin wants them so bad they should co-operate with a museum and have their bid put in throught the museum and then just get it from them:)
By: 23rd June 2003 at 14:49 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Do you know if he made the same offer to AF ?
By: 23rd June 2003 at 15:20 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-I too don't understand why he doesn't go for the AF aircraft. I suppose these have now been dispersed between the museums.
I think it's a fair point that Branson has infact multiplied his offer by a million, but still with regional jets costing around £17mil or £18mil it seems slightly cheeky.
I desperately want Virgin to get these aircraft, even if they just got one. To be honest I can't see them playing a major role in Virgin's operations so are five really necessary, BA could keep one for air shows etc as they say they will, some could go to museums and then Virgin could maybe take two and then an extra for spares.
It seems like such a waste for an aircraft that has a good six years left in it at least.
By: 23rd June 2003 at 16:26 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-good....Concorde can still take it to next 4-5 yrs.
By: 23rd June 2003 at 16:29 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-I dont think it matters what amount of money Branson offers, BA will still Snub him.
By: 23rd June 2003 at 16:44 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Virgin already know they won't get them, if BA went bankrupt then maybe, but in the mean time they'll make BA as being the 'bad guys' (they always are with Virgin) in an attempt to scrounge more passengers to fly his airline and not fly BA.
BA are easily able to knock back £5million with £1.87 billion of cash reserves and plenty more available with more time. BA could buy BMI (£880 million) tommorow and still have money left over.
;) :cool:
By: 23rd June 2003 at 17:45 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-I think I've confused myself in this Concorde issue, but hasn't Airbus refused to support Concorde after October?
If so then how does Branson propose to keep them going with out their help?
By: 23rd June 2003 at 17:54 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-I can't see Airbus upsetting Virgin too much - too lucrative a risk, with the possablilty of further A380/346 orders!
By: 23rd June 2003 at 17:58 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Good point EGNM. Very good point.
By: 23rd June 2003 at 18:02 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-I agree there, it doesn't seem logical, but we haven't heard Airbus backtracking on their inital statement that they were refusing to support concorde any further.
However as usual it has become very political, and we are probably not being fed the whole truth.
By: 23rd June 2003 at 18:47 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Yeah now Branson is trying to look like the nice guy and BA look bad bye saying if they wont sell the concords to us no matter what at least create a fund to keep them flying at airshows
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By: EGNM - 22nd June 2003 at 21:02
Apparently the bearded wonder has offered BA £1Million apiece for each of the 5 Concordes now...
I hope he gets em!!