Concorde granted permission by the Canadian authorities for the majority of the journey to be flown supersonically over sparsely-populated Canadian territory. Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a British-French turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner that was operated from 1976 until 2003. It had a maximum speed over twice the speed of sound at Mach 2.04 ( at cruise altitude), with seating for 92 to 128 passengers. First flown in 1969, Concorde entered service in 1976 and continued flying for the next 27 years. It is one of only two supersonic transports to have been operated commercially; the other is the Soviet-built Tupolev
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 It has been suggested that Concorde was not withdrawn for the reasons usually given but that it became apparent during the grounding of Concorde that the airlines could make more profit carrying first-class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