Concorde is usually only associated with two airlines,
British Airways and
Air France, the airlines that operated it from its launch to its retirement. However, there are four other airlines that figure prominently in the Concorde story, and it wouldn't be fair to leave them out. So here's
The Rest of the Story (tm)...
Pan Am: The Concorde That Wasn't
When the Concorde program was launched, it had twenty-one firm orders: seven each from British Airways, Air France, and Pan Am. In case you're too young to remember, Pan Am was, back in the day, the largest international airline based in the Estados Unidos, and probably the largest airline in the world bar none. It had been a launch customer for two other revolutionary airliners, the Boeing 707 and the Boeing 747.
After Pan Am ordered Concorde, economic conditions changed, making fuel for the kerosene-hungry aircraft a financial nightmare. Worse yet, U.S. environmental groups were protesting the SST's tendency to pollute the air and disturb people on the ground with its sonic booms, leading key American airports such as JFK to ban the plane outright. So Pan Am's Concordes had no future, and the planes slated for America were picked up by Britain and France instead.
Singapore Airlines: The Concorde That Halfway Was
Since BA couldn't fly the Concorde to America, it turned the SST on an eastward route to Bahrain. The airline's eventual goal was to link Britain and Australia by Concorde, but the route would require two refueling stops, and the next likely stop seemed to be Changi International Airport in Singapore.
BA enlisted the help of Singapore Airlines, and gave the Asian carrier exactly one-half of a Concorde. That is to say, British Airways operated and maintained the plane, but it painted a Singapore Airlines livery on the port (left) side. This was perhaps one of the only points in history when two airlines shared an aircraft's livery by splitting it down the centerline.
The Bahrain-Changi service only survived for three months in 1977. Malaysia started complaining about sonic booms, and Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC had agreed to let Concorde land. Two years later, BA and Singapore restored their cooperative service by using a new route across India, but because Concorde couldn't reach supersonic speeds over populated areas of the country, the carriers gave up again in 1980, and Concorde left Singapore for good.
Braniff International: The Concorde With A Double Identity
Nowadays, Braniff only exists as the production company that brings us South Park. Back in the seventies, however, it was a major U.S. airline, and its giant orange 747's were a common, if comical, sight at many airports.
In 1979, Braniff sent a group of pilots and flight attendants to Europe, and had them trained to operate Concorde. Later that year, Braniff worked out an agreement with both BA and Air France, under which it would commandeer one daily Concorde flight on each carrier from New York to Dallas/Fort Worth.
Although the planes were clearly marked in British Airways and Air France livery, they were operated by Braniff crews on their US sectors. To clear up legal problems (foreign carriers are generally not allowed to operate US domestic flights), the aircraft were registered in the United States, and their European registry was covered up with a giant sticker while they were on their US sectors.
Having an American Concorde might have been cool for Braniff, but it wasn't feasible on a business level. The flights were rarely more than 25% booked, and there was simply no way to turn a profit on such a short and low-dollar route. Braniff stopped flying Concorde in 1980.
Virgin Atlantic: The Concorde That Really, Really Wanted To Be
You've got to love Richard Branson. If somebody discovered oil on Mars, he would have a network of Virgin Petroleum rigs set up within a month, and would be operating a chain of 2,000 Virgin Gas Stations by year's end, and turning a higher profit than anybody else in the industry.
When British Airways decided to retire Concorde, Branson virtually leapt to the phones and began trying to buy the planes for his airline. He told British Airways that he would buy the whole fleet for the same price it carried in the 1970's. That price happened to be... one pound sterling. Needless to say, BA told Sir Richard to get stuffed.
Later, Branson reappeared with an offer of five million pounds. Again, BA refused, and explicitly stated that it would not sell Concorde to anyone at any price.
Although Virgin never got to fly Concorde, it did get to enjoy its fantasy in one way. Before the year was out, Virgin commissioned a model Concorde in its red and silver livery, and sold the models as a limited edition through its in-flight catalog.
Personally, I would have let Branson buy Concorde. He would have done something fun with it. Maybe it could have become a real-life Soul Plane.