Concorde’s last flight celebrated with champagne and caviar

THE last Air France Concorde to go on a commercial flight from Paris to New York landed yesterday, an emotional end to a pioneering chapter in aviation.

The white, needle-nosed supersonic plane took off with a roar from Charles de Gaulle airport, north of Paris, at 10.38am. In New York, the JFK Airport operations desk said the Concorde landed at 8.10am, 10 minutes ahead of schedule.

Today , in its last ever commercial flight for Air France, Concorde will speed back to Paris from New York and then go into retirement. “It’s very emotional. Concorde is a story of joy, of emotion, of technical prowess,” said Jean-Pierre Lefebvre, an Air France staffer, before the flight departed with 58 passengers, three pilots and eight cabin crew. Chief pilot Jean-Francois Michel was at the controls.