Concorde campaign group calls emergency meeting

As part of the SOS (Save Our Speedbird) emergency campaign, the Save Concorde Group will be hosting a public meeting into the imminent closure of public access to Concorde G-BOAF (216) at Filton Museum.

The meeting will take place on Saturday 4th September at 5pm at the Filton Leisure Centre, Elm Park, Filton [map]. Representatives from the Concorde Trust, Airbus, British Airways and the Bristol Aero Collection have been formally invited to take part in this opportunity for the public to show their support in our campaign to keep Concorde alive in Bristol.

Ben Lord, Chairman of Save Concorde Group, said:

“This meeting is incredibly important and long overdue. It is for the people of Bristol and those connected to Concorde to come and air their views. We’re delighted to be welcoming the MP for Filton, Jack Lopresti, who will be joining us on Saturday in support of this and we hope as many of the other invited officials are able to make it.”

“With the situation still remaining uncertain as to the future of Concorde, and the prospect of the current visitor centre being dismantled at the end of October, it is important this meeting is held in order to address the many points which continue to be unanswered.”

Mr Lord continued:

“Allegedly, Airbus has confirmed that it intends to remove Concorde G-BOAF (216) from the public in order to relocate the aircraft to one of its Brabazon hangars at Filton for ‘essential maintenance’. Airbus remain uncooperative to any calls from ourselves, the media or even politicians who have taken an interest in supporting this story, to explain exactly what’s happening to the aircraft and what it’s future is.”

“The frustrating factor in all of this is that the volunteers that have spent tireless amounts of hours showing the public around the attraction, previously worked on Concorde and are able to judge first hand the condition of the aircraft and they do not see why the plane needs to be removed from public display. It therefore makes no sense at all, that Airbus intends to spend £250,000 towards removing the plane from public display, when it is alleged they are closing the centre down in order to save costs!”

“One of the central tenets of the retirement of the Concorde fleet was that at least the airframes would be placed on public display for many years to come and in fact a contractual agreement is in place between BA and Airbus ensuring that Alpha Foxtrot is on display until 2013 by which point a permanent home should be available for her to be placed undercover.”

The Save Concorde Group looks forward to seeing as many people as possible on Saturday.

Source: Save Concorde Group