Poor ticket sales force Concorde flight delay

Press, 5 August 1981, Page 3

Poor ticket sales force Concorde flight delay

PA London The planned Concorde charter flight from Britain to New Zealand has been postponed because insufficient seats have been sold. The flight was to have been in October. At the end of Julv. however, only 25 of the 100 available seats had been paid for, and only 60 had been reserved. The charter organiser. Mr Robert Pooley. said that his company had received more than 200 inquiries for either return flights or flights from Britain to New Zealdn. but none for the supersonic journey from New Zealand to Britain. The Concorde flight organisers in New Zealand — who count, the Mayor of Auckland (Mr Colin Kay) among their patrons — had received 400 inquiries from New Zealan-

ders for Concorde flights within the country. Mr Pooley said. The flight had not been completely cancelled, only postponed until next year. “I hope things will be better next year,” he said. “I will continue to take bookings. and when we can get a date from British Airways we will ask people to pay for their flights. “In the meantime people who have already paid will get their money back.” Mr Pooley said that he was very disappointed. “It is not the money you lose that is upsetting, it is the fact that something unique has not come off." he said.

“I really thought it would be an overnight success. It seems a real businessman’s trip — the fare is not much

more than the regular firstclass fare, and I thought that there would be a good many businessmen prepared to pay that extra amount.

“But in fact it has turned out to be more the retired couples who have flown Concorde before who have been interested. One couple even drew their savings out of their Post Office account.

“Originally I though the lead time of six weeks to sell the seats was plenty, but in hindsight I can see that we should have given it far more time."

The price asked for a return Concorde flight and a week's accommodation was $NZ7694. A “club” class return flight was $NZ5464. All profits from the flight would have gone to the appeal for the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators.