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The Concorde was a supersonic passenger jet, with an average flight time around 3 hours and 30 minutes between London to New York. As can be seen here Complete List of Concorde Scheduled Flight between 1991-2000 British Airways operated the following flights:

BAW001 LHR-JFK /Daily/ DEP:10:30 ARR:09:25
BAW002 JFK-LHR /Daily/ DEP:12:15 ARR:21:00
BAW003 LHR-JFK /Daily/ DEP:19:30 ARR:18:25
BAW004 JFK-LHR /Daily/ DEP:13:30 ARR:22:25

The Atlantic states:

With twice-daily service from London to New York, it was not uncommon for businesspeople to take day trips and return home before pubs closed.

I have never found anyone that actually did. Technically, it was possible but it always seemed to be a more of a grandiose statement about the Concorde's capabilities rather than something that really happened.

For clarification: This refers to people that would have bought tickets or had a company buy tickets for them. So not including Pilots or Crew.

Tobias Wilfert
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    It doesn't seem like a particularly grandiose or implausible statement, or one which is really important in any way. Why do you think that it is a reasonable target for Skeptics? – John Coleman May 16 '21 at 12:34
  • Why do you think it didn't happen? Traveling for a day business meeting does happen and with trip times like that it would be worth it for some. – Joe W May 16 '21 at 13:54
  • Hello. We will need a quoted claim to test. Even a reddit post with enough views counts. –  May 16 '21 at 15:41
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    Example claim added. Reopened. – Oddthinking May 18 '21 at 01:14
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    Does the flight-crew count? Isn't it fairly routine on such short-haul flights to have the same pilot/copilot and crew for both legs of a journey? – Jiminy Cricket. May 18 '21 at 01:23
  • @John Coleman one way tickets costed +- 6000$ so roundtrip would have been 12k$. So it would have been cheaper to flight first-class non-concorde stay at the Plaza or Savoy Hotel and flight back the next day. – Tobias Wilfert May 18 '21 at 08:44
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    @ARogueAnt. Both the original question and the edited version are clearly talking about customers buying tickets in order to fly there and back again, not crew who are aboard for both legs. – IMSoP May 18 '21 at 12:10
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    @IMSoP Whilst I agree with you in the loosest reading, in principle the title: "Did anyone ever do a round trip on a Concorde in a single day?", and the final sentence of the question don't strictly match the claim in the quote. – Jiminy Cricket. May 18 '21 at 12:37
  • @ARogueAnt. I've seen that kind of argument made here before, and I find it tedious. Questions should be clear, but they don't need to be held up as a defensible contract in court; and titles should be relevant, but nobody should be answering without reading the whole question. I think the intent of the question here is perfectly clear. – IMSoP May 18 '21 at 15:42
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    Yeah, yeah, I know I was being pedantic; having been the first to comment I felt a proprietorial twinge when it wasn't "perfect". No harm done. @IMSoP – Jiminy Cricket. May 18 '21 at 17:34
  • Are the old flight schedule still available somewhere? Are you able to check if there actually was a gap long enough between arrival and departure to let someone reach the city centre, participate in a meeting, go back to the airport and go through passport control and check in formalities? – FluidCode May 18 '21 at 23:13
  • I asked a retired stewardess who was around at that time, and was told that crews didn't return on the same day, because the six hours time difference made the return too late. So the main problem is the time difference. And crews would tend to have a shorter time home-to-airport than the average business man or woman. That doesn't mean it's impossible to return same day, but less likely. – gnasher729 May 21 '21 at 09:22
  • @FluidCode Brian Furlong assembled the following list : https://forums.flightsimlabs.com/index.php?/topic/4874-complete-list-of-concorde-scheduled-flights/ – Tobias Wilfert May 21 '21 at 10:30
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    I had a quick look a the list in the linked page, it seems that the olnly possible round trip was from London to New York JFK and return with a gap of 4 hrs. Considering a fast lane for boarding the return flight it would have left about two hours for a business meeting. Except for a meeting to sign a contract (trusting nobody changed a word at the very last moment) I can't imagine so many chances worth the cost of the ticket and the 10 hrs plus travel time. – FluidCode May 23 '21 at 20:15
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    My father did it on a 747 once. He needed to fly AMS-JFK-AMS in a single day for an emergency meeting in New York and he had important meetings on the next day in the Netherlands he had to attent. The meeting took place at the airport, in the secure area (prior to 9/11, though given the attendants I'm sure it could have been done there today). So yes, it's definitely possible even with far slower aircraft than Concorde and has been done. Not knowing everyone who's ever flown Concorde I can't tell you more than that. – jwenting May 25 '21 at 07:09
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    @FluidCode correct. The scenarios (as I described) are pretty limited in which such a schedule makes much sense. But it is feasible and can be done. – jwenting May 25 '21 at 07:10

2 Answers2

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Fred W. Finn claims to have made not just two, but three, trips in a single day.

He once flew between London and New York three times on the same day. - The Official Website of Fred Finn, the world's most travelled man

I see no evidence that this claim has been confirmed by anyone else, but his broader claim of having the most air miles travelled by a single person (including 718 trips on the Concorde) has been vetted by Guinness World Records, so there is reason to believe it isn't a complete confabulation.

The fact that it is three trips actually makes it more plausible to me. I can imagine some emergency or error which meant he needed to make an unplanned round-trip to pick up/drop off/sign some essential item. This is pure speculation on my part, but it neatly circumvents all the objections that others have raised that no-one would rationally choose such an itinerary.

This should not be read as support for the quoted claim that it was "not uncommon".

Oddthinking
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Yes, people have made the Concorde return flight on a single day. For example this CNN article, details the experience of a Richard Ford:

"As a part of the detailed technical work it was important to learn more about the flying experience. I was privileged to be offered the chance to make a return flight to New York from London in one day!" says Ford.

However, this may not be the best example since he wasn't a paying customer. I think as far as people did this, it was purely for novelty value. As same day return across the Atlantic simply isn't very practical due to the difference in time zones. Sure a businessman could hop on the Concorde in London at 10:30 am and still be on time for a 9:30 am business meeting in New York. But if you would want to return at the end of the business day, it would already be midnight in Europe and all that you would achieve by taking a Concorde (if it would have flown at that time) would be arriving in Europe at 3-4 am. (And with how noisy the Concorde was, there would be no chance of getting any sleep.) It was generally more convenient to taake a regular first class flight back, and arrive at 6-7 am, having slept on the plane ready for the next working day.

TimRias
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    There are people who do this all the time on shorter flights. Take an early morning flight to get to a business meeting and catch a late night flight to return sometimes in the middle of the night. For some they have busy schedules and will need to catch a flight for an important meeting and a return flight for another one the next day. – Joe W May 18 '21 at 14:40
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    I don't think this answers the question. The referenced part is not about the claim ("not uncommon for businesspeople") but about staff. The rest is your unreferenced speculation about what other people's motivations and what they might prefer to do. – Oddthinking May 18 '21 at 16:45
  • The quote from Richard Ford states that he was offered the chance to make a return flight in a single day but it does not state that he accepted this offer. The omission of confirmation makes me think that the CNN article was reinforcing the claim that it _could_ be done, much as the OP suspects of the Atlantic article. – vsfDawg May 21 '21 at 11:10
  • Concorde was noisy to those on land below it but I think was quiet in the cabin – mmmmmm May 21 '21 at 11:23
  • @mmmmmm By all passenger accounts it was extremely noisy. – TimRias May 21 '21 at 17:35
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    @vsfDawg As the article goes on to describe his experience, the pretty much confirms that he took the flight. – TimRias May 21 '21 at 17:38
  • @mmeent He clearly states that he flew on the Concorde but nothing in his statement implies that he _accepted_ the offer of the same day return flight. I would think that he would say it explicitly instead of using the awkward phrasing that he was offered the flight. The awkward phrasing implies to me that he did not accept the single-day return flight offer. – vsfDawg May 24 '21 at 11:01
  • "I was privileged to be offered the chance" appears to imply "and I took it". If you Google the phrase, then either people accepted it or it's ambiguous; that's a small sample, but "I was privileged to be given the chance" is the same. It may sound awkward but it's a way of expressing gratitude. – Stuart F May 31 '21 at 21:42