Concorde lifts flight museum visitor figures to new heights

Published on Wednesday 3 August 2005 12:37

CONCORDE has attracted more visitors to a Lothian museum in the past seven months than in the whole of 2004, it was revealed today.

The unveiling of the exhibition featuring the supersonic jet in March has already boosted visitor figures to the East Fortune museum to record levels.

A total of 93,132 people have so far visited the museum in 2005 - almost 20,000 up on last year's 12 month total - as people flock to see the historic aircraft.

Concorde first arrived at the museum in March 2004, but was on show while still in bits as engineers painstakingly reconstructed Golf Bravo Alpha Alpha, after it was dismantled for its complex journey from Heathrow Airport.

Visitors were able to see behind the scenes during the restoration and rebuilding of the aircraft from a specially-constructed viewing gallery, but the jet was only unveiled in its entirety four months ago.

Despite the limited viewing, visitor numbers went up almost fourfold during the year of the jet-plane's reconstruction.

Now the new Concorde Experience exhibition, which includes a 40-minute tour around the historic jet, has seen ticket sales rocket.

In May, it emerged that more than 30,000 visitors had flocked to see the jet in the first six weeks of it being on show.

Director of the National Museums of Scotland, Dr Gordon Rintoul, said: "The success we have had at the Museum of Flight since the opening of The Concorde Experience has been fantastic, and we are delighted to be helping to place East Lothian on the tourist map.

"Bringing Concorde to Scotland was a big task and it is great to see that the efforts of so many people have proved to be worthwhile.

"The installation of Concorde is the catalyst for an ambitious redevelopment at the Museum of Flight, as we aim to continue to provide the best experience we can for our visitors."

Tourism chiefs in East Lothian hope the aircraft's appeal will bring in more visitors to the region.

A spokesman for East Lothian council said: "We are very pleased that Concorde came to the Museum of Flight, because it has done wonders for tourism in the area. When people come to visit Concorde they visit other attractions as well, which is very good for East Lothian as a whole. We are delighted it has been so successful."

A spokeswoman for VisitScotland said: "That is wonderful news. Anything that boosts tourism is a great bonus to Scotland and the industry in general.

"This is a great endorsement for the museum and something that VisitScotland would encourage."

The aircraft, which is one of only seven in the world, flew the world's first supersonic airline passengers from London to Bahrain in 1976.

A standard return from London to New York cost Concorde passengers 6,636.

Earlier this year, the jet opened up to couples looking for a supersonic wedding venue.

Ceremonies can be carried out at the front of the cabin, while guests relax in first-class airline seats.