Ba Heathrow Crash

London's newest attraction: a British Airways Concorde?

You may never have flown above the oceans in the supersonic jet but this time next year you may be able to walk through one sitting on a jetty atop the Thames.

Plans are afoot to rescue a decommissioned Concorde from a British Airways hangar at Heathrow Airport and display it on a double-deck pontoon moored near the London Eye observation wheel, with the Concorde receiving her first visitors in March 2012.

According to  Club Concorde , which is behind the scheme, a London corporate investment company is "confident of raising the £20 million investment" needed to cover the cost of the project.

The display platform will be situated between the London Eye and Hungerford Bridge, adjacent to Jubilee Gardens, with construction completed by January 2012. A new jetty would allow access for visitors from The Embankment and riverboats. 

Visitors will be able to get a first-hand look at the extraordinary aircraft and also explore is development and history in an interactive display located on the lower deck of the pontoon.

The plane itself, codenamed Alpha Bravo, made its final flight between New York and London on August 15, 2000 – just weeks after the crash of an Air France Concorde outside Paris killed 113 people and led to the grounding of the entire fleet.

Las Vegas Flight Report – British Airways

BA 275 Heathrow to Las Vegas – Flight Time 10 Hours 05 Minutes

I love the fact that British Airways allow you to have the option of having your boarding pass on your smartphone via their app, saves on remembering to print the pass out.  When we arrived at the bag drop we were advised we had been given lounge access, in the Southern Lounge.  This was a very pleasant and welcoming surprise.  I would like to point out whilst I adore travelling through T5 because it is purely for British Airways there a no generic lounges, and as I previously wrote about before , BA (unlike many other airlines) do not allow you to pay for access.  I will say it again, allowing people to pay for lounge access will help to add value and earn additional revenue for the carrier (rant over).

The Galleries Club Lounge in T5 is well furnished and has a varied selection of food and beverages which catered for all.  Whilst relaxing in the lounge I received a message to say that we had been upgraded from World Traveller Plus to Club World (what a way to start our trip).  Now I will be honest and say I am not a fan of the Club World configuration, however the seats are amongst the most comfortable I have experienced inflight, I even managed to sneak in a few forty winks.  We had been allocated 11 E/F at the rear of the Club World Cabin, now these seats are a gem if you are travelling as a couple.  The seats give you the impression you are in a private cabin and even better you don’t have to clamber over anyone else to gain aisle access.

The crew operating the Las Vegas rotations are the new Mixed Fleet Cabin Crew .  Now I know everyone has their opinions on the new crew, however I was very impressed.  They were enthusiastic, welcoming, friendly, professional and above all gave the impression they were enjoying their roles.  Before I am hit will a deluge of comments saying I am implying that the mainline cabin crew are none of the above, that is not the case, this is my observation from the flights.

Having been spoilt on the outbound flight, when we dropped our bags off we asked if we could upgrade and that we were willing to pay.  The checkin agent looked at our boarding passes and said “We are doing a special promotion from World Traveller to World Traveller Plus”.  I pointed out that we were already in WTP and would like to upgrade to Club.  Without even touching a keyboard he said Club is overbooked. Now I had got some friends to check the flight and well there were plenty of seats available.  He response – all the other airlines are booking on our flight, try at the gate.  So at the gate we mentioned to the staff and again they said Club was over booked.  The gate staffed were on the whole pleasant, however one girl was chewing gum – certainly not a professional look.

International Register of Civil Aircraft (Irca) Handbook

Heathrow Airport, Concorde, M25 Motorway, London Heathrow Airport, Piccadilly Line, Heathrow, London, M4 Motorway, British Airways Flight 38

Transport statistics, Great Britain

Business Continuity Management, A Crisis Management Approach

Aviation Accidents and Incidents in the United Kingdom, British Airways Flight 38, British European Airways Flight 548, Ottery St Mary