After the retirement of Concorde, British Airways replaced the supersonic plane with a luxury Airbus A318 plane.
The legendary three-hour trip from London to New York was replaced with a somewhat less exciting alternative.
However, it did come with its perks, as the customers got pampered with first-class luxury treatment.
The Concorde was retired in November 2003 after many countries banned commercial supersonic planes from flying over them.
The plane also had a lot of economic issues that played a major part in its retirement.
To recapture some of that magic, British Airways offered a luxury Airbus A318 first-class flight with the same BA1 to BA4 flight numbers as the Concorde.
Moreover, Airbus fitted out the aircraft entirely with first-class seats.
Well, nobody is a VIP if everyone is a VIP.
Of course, it still doesn’t hold a candle to the world’s ‘most exclusive’ first-class seat, but it was pretty good.
The luxury Airbus A318 flight didn’t run from Heathrow Airport like the Concorde — instead, it ran from London City Airport.
Where the Concorde took passengers from London to New York in just three hours, the Airbus A318 didn’t quite manage that.
Due to the take-off restrictions at London City Airport, the Airbus A318 was not able to take off with a full tank of fuel.
However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Passengers were able to go through customs at Shannon Airport, where the plane had to refuel.
Sadly, it still didn’t match the amazing feeling of flying in a Concorde at supersonic speeds.
The aircraft had a two-plus-two layout and could carry 32 passengers at a time.
However, British Airways only ran the luxury Airbus A318 service from 2009 until 2020.
Unfortunately, the service didn’t appeal to a lot of people, as the seats were quite expensive.
We might see a return of a service like Concorde in the not-too-distant future, as Airbus is reportedly working on its own supersonic aircraft.
