After Decade, Concorde’s Passengers Are Blase About Mach 2

The passengers no longer burst into applause when told they are traveling faster than the speed of sound. Most who fly on Concorde do not even bother to take home the embossed document handed out to certify the experience.

Ten years after the aircraft began commercial service, it is used mostly by rich people in a hurry who find that the ease and prestige of hurtling over the Atlantic in half the time of other planes outlasts the initial thrill of supersonic flight.

“We get commuter types,” said chief steward Adrian Street, catching his breath in the compact galley after serving a five-course lunch on a British Airways London-New York run. “They know what to expect now.”

Imperceptible Sensation

Cruising at 60,000 feet in a Concorde, the Archbishop of Canterbury once remarked that he never felt closer to God. But the top-level businessmen who are the jet’s main users find the physical sensation of breaking the sound barrier imperceptible.

“It was exciting at first,” the chairman of investment bankers Kidder Peabody International, Mohamed Younes, said. “Now it’s just a great convenience.”

British Airways, which with Air France began flying Concorde on Jan. 21, 1976, tries its best to keep up the excitement for those less accustomed to flying at 1,350 miles per hour.

Computer Display

To the apparent indifference of executives working through the 3 1/2-hour trip, the captain announces when Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound, is reached.

A video display terminal at the front of the two cabins, both first-class, gives the current speed, altitude, temperature outside and miles left in the journey.

Concorde fliers not absorbed by such information or their professional work amuse themselves watching fellow travelers whose one-way fare cost $2,466. There is no reduction for return tickets.

Crew members said that dancer Rudolf Nureyev, film-maker Richard Attenborough and singer Paul McCartney are regulars.

Watching ‘the Biggies’

“I’m a star-gazer,” admitted Broadway-Hollywood composer and Concorde flier Marvin Hamlisch. “I love waiting in the Concorde lounge to see the biggies.”

There is little socializing among passengers since they are kept from leaving the pearl-gray leather seats by the constant to-and-fro of trolleys laden with caviar, grilled lamb, filet of sole, cheeses, chocolates, wines, champagne and liqueurs.

“It’s a streamlined service,” Street said, explaining that food has to be portioned out in advance on china since there is no room for the serving flourishes found in first-class on a jumbo jet.

Cramped Quarters

A recent refitting of all British Airways Concordes provided extra storage room, legroom and a new decor. Space in the narrow, needle-nosed plane remains tight. Ceilings are low and taller men complain that it is difficult to stand at the toilet.

There are 100 seats, two to each side of the aisle. British Airways says an average of at least 60% are full on its flights--two daily each way between London and New York and three times a week between London, Washington and Miami.

In Concorde’s first year, British Airways showed a $3.3-million loss on its operation.

Some Routes Dropped

The original route to Bahrain and its Singapore extension got the ax, as did Air France flights to Rio de Janeiro. In 1983-84, the most recent reported figures, the British-U.S. trips made British Airways a $17.3-million profit.

Worldwide charters, drawing a less jaded clientele still ready to applaud at Mach 2, account for 10% of revenues. Cunard Lines is a big charter customer, offering Concorde flights in conjunction with cruises on its flagship, the Queen Elizabeth 2.

Regular bookings on the Anglo-French plane are often made at the last minute. “They’re very spontaneous in their movements,” is how a British Airways spokesman described Concorde passengers.

Ken Flach, a professional tennis player on the Grand Prix circuit, said he decided to take the 10:30 a.m. flight, arriving in New York at 9:30 a.m., to avoid missing the football games on television later in the day.

Opposition Subsides

With supersonic booms limited largely to the airspace over the North Atlantic, much of the original environmentalist opposition to the costly aircraft has subsided.

British Airways and Air France say it will be at least 10 more years before the publicity-grabbing Concorde disappears from the skies. But the 10th anniversary of a plane no longer in production worries some passengers who value and can afford its speed.

“Something has to take its place,” said Vincent Lamb, an engineer who takes Concorde once a month en route to a job in Abu Dhabi. Glancing out the tiny window at the curvature of the Earth below, he asked: “What are we going to do after this?”