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The Concorde was anyways a technical marvel of its time, and a status symbol for society. Its fares were well above the rest, costing USD2999 + taxes for a JFK-LHR journey. But, at the same time there are reports that British Airways indeed made $750 million from it, over 27 years:

It was not that Concorde operations made losses. In fact, on an average Concorde made an operating profit of £30-50 million a year for BA. BA reportedly earned £1.75 Billion in revenue for Concorde services against an operating cost of around £1 billion during its 27 years of commercial operation (1976-2003).

So, what impact did it have on the business of other sub-sonic airliners? Probably, economy class would not have been so much stricken, since its fares were more than 3 times higher. But what was the impact on business class travel of other airlines and airliners, between the destinations served by the Concorde?

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    $\begingroup$ I would guess that subsonic first class lost precisely as many travelers as there were tickets sold on the Concorde. Though, it might have been even less - those who chose to fly Concorde may have done so at the expense of private jets or charter, not public first class, either for the speed or the status. $\endgroup$
    – FreeMan
    Commented Jul 15, 2015 at 13:58
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    $\begingroup$ With 14 planes made and 100 passengers, the impact would be very limited passenger wise. $\endgroup$
    – Antzi
    Commented Jul 15, 2015 at 21:57

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A few thoughts:

  • The British Airways Concordes only operated scheduled on the London Heathrow- New York JFK route. This implies this is the route under the most competition. There has been enough pressure on this route even after the demise of the Concorde for several companies (as well as BA) to try business-only services on this route.

  • By experience, changing flights is never quick in the US since you need to go through customs and add time margin to ensure you make the connection (Think three hours connection time on the ground). I think even before the current security state you'd rather have taken a direct flight than change from a Concorde to a domestic flight if possible.

  • I don't think the charter destinations would have caused much impact on other airline operations.

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As told, Concorde is one of the technical marvels of man. It wouldn't have large impact on economy but, it definitely had a huge impact on business class. Concorde would take less time than the subsonic flights, the person choosing business class would as well choose Concorde for the same destination because TIME is one of the major factor. Concorde travels much faster than subsonic.

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