Last Concorde tickets selling fast

There are only 450 tickets left for the historic flights

Passengers have rushed to snap up tickets for the final flights on Concorde before it is retired from service.

A third of the 450 tickets available were snapped up within 90 minutes of going on sale at 0900 BST.

Flights between London and New York are sold out for 22 and 23 October despite a price tag of £4,350 one-way and up to £8,292 for a return trip.

Only a few tickets are left unsold for four other dates.

The supersonic jet will bid farewell in October with a round-Britain tour and final flights to New York.

The iconic plane will cross the Atlantic 20 times during its last week before the final commercial flight, BA001 to New York's JFK airport, takes off from Heathrow on 23 October.

The last Air France Concorde flight took place on 31 May.

The airlines decided to ground the luxury service after 27 years because of falling tickets sales coupled with increasing maintenance costs.

A few high profile technical problems, including the crash near Paris of Air France Concorde in 2000 in which 113 people died, have added to passengers' reluctance to use it.

BA plans to carry up to 2,000 travellers between 18 and 24 October.

A BA spokeswoman said: "There has been huge demand and the few seats available are mainly for flights originating in New York".

Martin George, BA's director of marketing, said more than 1,000 competition winners and special guests would also be enjoying the farewell tour of the UK.

Supersonic finale

Ahead of the tickets going on sale, he said: "People have been calling us all summer about buying a seat for the final week and we are delighted that we can now begin offering them to those people on our waiting lists and several hundred other customers.

The UK tour will see Concorde visit Birmingham, Belfast, Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh before culminating in a series of three supersonic flights from New York, Edinburgh and round the Bay of Biscay on her final day.

Air France Concordes have been distributed to museums.

An auction of French Concorde memorabilia, including engines and a nose-cone, will be held in Paris next month.