Concorde expected to fly in August 2002

BRITISH Airways' Concorde has flown for the first time since modifications and the airline's chief executive, Rod Eddington, believes it will soon be back in commercial service. Concorde has been on a verification flight over the Atlantic, replicating the speed, altitude and duration of a trip between London and New York. He said there will be more verification flights over the next two months, with the expectation that the airline will fly in Britain's late summer. At BA's recent agm, Eddington spoke of the airline's renewed hopes of achieving a commercial partnership with American Airlines and the expectation of eventual airline consolidation within Europe, according to BA News. (Mark Gray)