4

The Concorde was a supersonic passenger jet, with an average flight time around 3 hours and 30 minutes between London to New York. As can be seen here Complete List of Concorde Scheduled Flight between 1991-2000 British Airways operated the following flights:

BAW001 LHR-JFK /Daily/ DEP:10:30 ARR:09:25
BAW002 JFK-LHR /Daily/ DEP:12:15 ARR:21:00
BAW003 LHR-JFK /Daily/ DEP:19:30 ARR:18:25
BAW004 JFK-LHR /Daily/ DEP:13:30 ARR:22:25

The Atlantic states:

With twice-daily service from London to New York, it was not uncommon for businesspeople to take day trips and return home before pubs closed.

I have never found anyone that actually did. Technically, it was possible but it always seemed to be a more of a grandiose statement about the Concorde's capabilities rather than something that really happened.

For clarification: This refers to people that would have bought tickets or had a company buy tickets for them. So not including Pilots or Crew.

Improve this question
16
  • 3
    It doesn't seem like a particularly grandiose or implausible statement, or one which is really important in any way. Why do you think that it is a reasonable target for Skeptics?
    – John Coleman
    May 16, 2021 at 12:34
  • 1
    Example claim added. Reopened.
    – Oddthinking ♦
    May 18, 2021 at 1:14
  • 1
    Does the flight-crew count? Isn't it fairly routine on such short-haul flights to have the same pilot/copilot and crew for both legs of a journey?
    – Jiminy Cricket.
    May 18, 2021 at 1:23
  • 1
    @ARogueAnt. Both the original question and the edited version are clearly talking about customers buying tickets in order to fly there and back again, not crew who are aboard for both legs.
    – IMSoP
    May 18, 2021 at 12:10
  • 1
    @IMSoP Whilst I agree with you in the loosest reading, in principle the title: "Did anyone ever do a round trip on a Concorde in a single day?", and the final sentence of the question don't strictly match the claim in the quote.
    – Jiminy Cricket.
    May 18, 2021 at 12:37

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2
+25

Fred W. Finn claims to have made not just two, but three, trips in a single day.

He once flew between London and New York three times on the same day. - The Official Website of Fred Finn, the world's most travelled man

I see no evidence that this claim has been confirmed by anyone else, but his broader claim of having the most air miles travelled by a single person (including 718 trips on the Concorde) has been vetted by Guinness World Records, so there is reason to believe it isn't a complete confabulation.

The fact that it is three trips actually makes it more plausible to me. I can imagine some emergency or error which meant he needed to make an unplanned round-trip to pick up/drop off/sign some essential item. This is pure speculation on my part, but it neatly circumvents all the objections that others have raised that no-one would rationally choose such an itinerary.

This should not be read as support for the quoted claim that it was "not uncommon".

Improve this answer
1

Yes, people have made the Concorde return flight on a single day. For example this CNN article, details the experience of a Richard Ford:

"As a part of the detailed technical work it was important to learn more about the flying experience. I was privileged to be offered the chance to make a return flight to New York from London in one day!" says Ford.

However, this may not be the best example since he wasn't a paying customer. I think as far as people did this, it was purely for novelty value. As same day return across the Atlantic simply isn't very practical due to the difference in time zones. Sure a businessman could hop on the Concorde in London at 10:30 am and still be on time for a 9:30 am business meeting in New York. But if you would want to return at the end of the business day, it would already be midnight in Europe and all that you would achieve by taking a Concorde (if it would have flown at that time) would be arriving in Europe at 3-4 am. (And with how noisy the Concorde was, there would be no chance of getting any sleep.) It was generally more convenient to taake a regular first class flight back, and arrive at 6-7 am, having slept on the plane ready for the next working day.

Improve this answer
8
  • 3
    There are people who do this all the time on shorter flights. Take an early morning flight to get to a business meeting and catch a late night flight to return sometimes in the middle of the night. For some they have busy schedules and will need to catch a flight for an important meeting and a return flight for another one the next day.
    – Joe W
    May 18, 2021 at 14:40
  • 3
    I don't think this answers the question. The referenced part is not about the claim ("not uncommon for businesspeople") but about staff. The rest is your unreferenced speculation about what other people's motivations and what they might prefer to do.
    – Oddthinking ♦
    May 18, 2021 at 16:45
  • The quote from Richard Ford states that he was offered the chance to make a return flight in a single day but it does not state that he accepted this offer. The omission of confirmation makes me think that the CNN article was reinforcing the claim that it could be done, much as the OP suspects of the Atlantic article.
    – vsfDawg
    May 21, 2021 at 11:10
  • Concorde was noisy to those on land below it but I think was quiet in the cabin
    – mmmmmm
    May 21, 2021 at 11:23
  • 1
    @vsfDawg As the article goes on to describe his experience, the pretty much confirms that he took the flight.
    – TimRias
    May 21, 2021 at 17:38

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .