Why was Concorde retired?

Short answer

Concorde was retired in 2003 because it was no longer viable to operate: a fleet of just 14 aircraft, very high fuel burn for about a hundred passengers, a ban on supersonic flight over land, the 2000 Paris crash, the post-9/11 downturn, and Airbus's decision to withdraw technical support. Air France retired it in May 2003 and British Airways in October.

Published: September 21, 2026 · Updated: September 21, 2026 · Edited by Above Ten Thousand · Editorial policy

Heathrow Airport - geograph org uk - 293Brendan and Ruth McCartney (CC BY SA), vía commons

An aircraft with no successor and no market

Concorde was retired in 2003 for a combination of reasons. Only 20 units were ever built, of which 14 flew in scheduled service, seven with Air France and seven with British Airways; with such a small fleet, every spare part and every modification cost a fortune. Its four afterburning Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 engines burned kerosene at a rate no commercial aircraft has matched since to carry about a hundred passengers, and the ban on supersonic flight over land effectively confined it to the North Atlantic.

The Gonesse crash and 9/11

On July 25, 2000, Air France Flight 4590 crashed shortly after takeoff from Paris-Charles de Gaulle: a tire burst and its fragments pierced a fuel tank. All 109 people on board and four on the ground died. It was Concorde's only fatal accident, but it ended its image of invulnerability. The fleet stayed grounded until November 2001, after the tanks were reinforced and new tires introduced, and returned to service just weeks after the September 11 attacks, when transatlantic premium traffic, its only customer base, had collapsed.

The final decision

In April 2003 Air France and British Airways simultaneously announced the end of operations, and Airbus, heir to the program, confirmed it would stop providing technical support for the aircraft, making it impossible to keep flying. Air France flew its last commercial flight on May 31, 2003, and British Airways on October 24, with three aircraft landing at Heathrow one after another. Concorde's final flight took G-BOAF to Filton, where it had been built, on November 26, 2003. No passenger aircraft has exceeded the speed of sound since.