Air France Concorde ~99

[Nigel C]

Digging through some old photos, I found a series of an Air France Concorde take off shots I took in Sydney some time around 1999. There is a youtube video of the same take-off taken from the western Ansett apron.

Registration is F-BVFC, but would anyone know the actual date it arrived and departed?

Here's a few poor quality scans. The actual photos look much, much better.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Hi Nigel, I found this on an Airliners.net forum thread relating to Concorde in Hong Kong ...

Air France has charter services round the world a couple of times every year (not once every couple of years). Also, the 12/31/99 visit of an Air France Concorde (F-BVFC) was arriving from Sydney via Jakarta and was leaving for Delhi nonstop.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Great old images Nigel (love the rotate images). Unfortunately they always look much better as original prints than what can be achieved with a scan.

I always loved the Concorde visits, and can remember Air France visiting Sydney a few times (I have a print of an Air France Concorde outside the Qantas hangers). Here are a few shots of G-BOAE from 1985 (landed on Runway 16 on the 14/02/1985 and departed on the 15/02/1985).

[Nigel C]

Thanks Grahame. I added a couple more rotation shots to the original post.

I'm wondering if there might have been another tour by that aircraft before the New Years one you mentioned? I know I went up there on a day off, and I remember it was one of the only times I've ever taken my wife airside (yep, 13 years of working there and she's had maybe 2 or 3 visits?), but being New Years eve doesn't seem right...?

[Grahame Hutchison]

This was F-BVFF (the rego is a little unclear) in Sydney on 24/01/1988

[Matthew Chisholm]

It wasnt NYE. I did the tarmac tour the day the Air France Concord was there. Back in the days of a minibus and having the door open.

[Nigel C]

24th September 1999 seems to match up with quite a few photos on Airliners.net. This must have been it!

[Andi O]

My records show F-BVFC visiting Sydney in Sep 98 arriving as AFR4605 from Christchurch on 21/9. I don't have the departure details, but most of these flights went to Denpasar a couple of days later.
I show no record of "FC" visiting in 99, just 2 visits from "FB" Feb and Sep (This aircraft was also in Sydney in Oct 98)

[Nigel C]

I didn't start at the airport until 99, so it couldn't have been the 98 tour.

Like I said, Airliners has a few shots from 21st September 1999 of BVFC arriving as AF4604 from Christchurch, and departing on the 24th September from a number of different photographers...they can't all be wrong surely!

[James R]

It was most definitely September 1999.