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Concorde: Air France Concordes punctuality in 2002.
(Flights AF 001 and AF 002)

Quick statistical study

The special alchemy of technology, speed and beauty have arguably made Concorde into one of the greatest myths of world aviation. This is likely why she withstood the tragedy of 25 July 2000.
But all Concorde fans know that the continuation of her long career depends on her ability to fulfill her original purpose, namely to fly trusting passengers to their destination on time and faster than any other airplane.

On this crucial issue of punctuality, very little information seems available. On one hand, the media at large tend to overstress any gremlin affecting the aircraft's punctuality; on the other hand, neither Air France nor British Airways websites appear to have a specific SST punctuality item.
This is why I have tried to get some idea of Concorde punctuality by collecting information available on the Air France website's "current flights" section and comparing it with the official timetable. With no intent to compete with professional statisticians, I have imagined a "virtual businessman" flying monthly from four up to eight Paris-New York roundtrips (AF 002-AF 001), randomly booked one month in advance. Furthermore I have considered as being "on time" all flights with less than a quarter of an hour delay against the official timetable, since it seems very unlikely such a small delay would result from a technical deficiency of the aircraft.

I offer the following findings:

Total AF 001-AF 002 flights in the year 2002: 518
"Virtual businessman" flights: 148 ( equivalent to 74 roundtrips, i.e. a 28% sample of the total set under study)
"Virtual businessman" delayed flights: 10(*) resulting in a 93.3% punctuality rate.
A similar analysis, made in 2001, of all flights from nov.7 through dec. 31 resulted in a 95.1% punctuality rate.
Assuming no errors in my unformal survey, it would be worthwhile to compare these numbers with the Air France internal yet unpublished figures, and above all to know what image of Concorde they convey to the potential customers. Unfortunately, the "virtual businessman" shied away from any interview.

(*) Detail of the 10 delayed flights:

Jan.

Feb.

Mar.

Apr.

May

Jun.

Jul.

Aug.

Sep.

Oct.

Nov.

Dec.

Nb * h. delay

2*2 2*4

1*2.5

1*3.5

0

0

0

1*0.8

0

1*4

1*0.5

1 annulé

0

Thank you Charles Pompéi for this study
(December 30, 2002)