£20m rush for Concorde seats

AS Concorde returned to service today, BA chief executive Rod Eddington said his airline had taken more than 7,000 bookings worth £20m for flights from London to New York and Barbados on board the exclusive supersonic jet.

Eddington said: 'This is a very exciting and very important day for BA and for our staff and customers. Our people have been working really hard to put Concorde back into the air and our customers have constantly been asking 'When is Concorde coming back?'.

'Hopefully, this will be seen as part of the return to something like normality for aviation. Concorde changes the way people who do business in London and New York do that business. I am also delighted that Tony Blair has chosen to fly Concorde today. He's always been a great supporter of the aircraft.'

Eddington said BA's disappointing financial results on Tuesday 'recognised the reality that 25% of our customers are not flying at the moment'.

'Some are not flying because they are anxious about getting back in the air and others are not doing so because of the economic downturn. There are just too many seats chasing too few customers,' he said.

The first of the Concordes to return to service took off from Charles de Gaulle airport and headed out over the scene of the crash in July last year that killed 113 and grounded the entire fleet.

A short time later, a BA Concorde also took off for the US carrying invited passengers on what was effectively a promotional trip. Pop singer Sting and veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost - both Concorde regulars - were among the privileged few.

Though guests in the elegant but cramped cabin will be eating off finest bone china and drinking out of crystal flutes, they will have to make do with plastic cutlery as a result of security changes.

Tony Blair left on Concorde late this afternoon to brief President Bush on the Prime Minister‘s recent round of shuttle diplomacy.