Concorde allow for "luxury" features of subsonic air travel such as moving space, reclining seats and overall comfort. In the words of "The Guardian"'s Dave Hall, "Concorde was an outdated notion of prestige that left sheer speed the only luxury of supersonic travel." Air France made its final commercial Concorde landing in the United States in New York City from Paris on 30 May 2003. Air France's final Concorde flight took place on 27 June 2003 when F-BVFC retired to Toulouse. An auction of Concorde parts and memorabilia for Air France was held at Christie's in Paris on 15 November 2003;
Concorde "for many years to come". The chances for keeping Concorde in service were stifled by Airbus's lack of support for continued maintenance. It has been suggested that Concorde was not withdrawn for the reasons usually given but that it became apparent during the grounding of Concorde that the airlines could make more profit carrying first-class passengers subsonically. A lack of commitment to Concorde from Director of Engineering Alan MacDonald was cited as having undermined BA's resolve to continue operating Concorde. Other reasons why the attempted revival of Concorde never happened relate to the fact that the narrow fuselage did not