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Wikipedia[1][2][3][4]: "Concorde began scheduled flights with British Airways and Air France on 21 January 1976", on the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes.- Start
- Jan 21, 197690% CONFIDENCEsource
Concorde Begins Scheduled Supersonic Passenger Service
Main competitors
- Tupolev Tu-144 · Tupolev
Soviet supersonic airliner - first flew 31 December 1968, two months before Concorde - cruised near Mach 2 on afterburning Kuznetsov NK-144 engines - Aeroflot service from 26 December 1975
Source - Boeing 2707 · Boeing
Cancelled US supersonic airliner - 250-300 seats - cruise about Mach 3 - cancelled in 1971 before any entered service
Source
British Airways and Air France began scheduled Concorde flights on 21 January 1976, London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio de Janeiro via Dakar, the world's first supersonic airline service.
- Concorde entered service on 21 January 1976 with Air France from Paris-Roissy and British Airways from London Heathrow[1][2]
- The first routes were London-Bahrain for British Airways and Paris-Rio de Janeiro via Dakar for Air France; BA flights used the 'Speedbird Concorde' call sign[1]
- Transatlantic flights followed: Washington Dulles from 24 May 1976 and New York JFK from 17 October 1977[2]
- Development cost had risen to between 1.5 and 2.1 billion pounds by 1976, and Air France and British Airways, with seven aircraft each, were the only customers[2]
- Air France flew its last commercial Concorde service on 31 May 2003 and British Airways retired its fleet on 24 October 2003[1]