Airlines continually plan the acquisition of newer aircraft and the retirement of older models. With fuel costs as a major factor in determining the profitability of specific planes, we’ve seen more and more airlines retire some, if not all, of their older aircraft. It’s been sad to see so many Beoing 747s retired after decades of flying.
Mot airlines operate on a gradual schedule of phasing out old airplanes while simultaneously acquiring new, more fuel efficient ones. But with the coronavirus pandemic and government response to its outbreak causing an unprecedented drop in air travel demand, many airlines are retiring old airplanes early. One of these is the Airbus A340.
Airlines Still Flying the Airbus A340
It’s no secret that the Airbus A340 was never a hot seller. Like Airbus’ other wide-body aircraft, none sold as well as comparable Boeing models up until the A350. The quad-engine A340 simply didn’t carry enough passengers to compete well with the Boeing 747 and burned a whole lot more fuel than the more similar twin-engine 777. Only 377 were ever delivered. A350 deliveries will soon exceed this, especially with ~600 orders still on the books.
Still, a number of airlines bought the planes. The two that always come to the forefront of my mind are Lufthansa and Iberia. Both of these airlines have continued to operate the Airbus A340 on a number of routes. I’ve previously looked at booking flights on these carrier’s A340-600s. They’re older planes, and less fuel efficient than the newer A350, which is actively replacing them.
Retirement of these aircraft was always in the cards, but I thought I’d have at least a couple more years to plan a flight aboard one. That chance may now be lost.
The Pandemic Is Forcing Early Aircraft Retirement
Now that airlines are parking untold numbers of aircraft due to the sharp drop in air travel demand, we may never see some of these older aircraft take to the skies again. Airlines are retiring many quad-engine aircraft, along with older twin engine aircraft such as the Boeing 757 and 767.
Iberia had plans to retire all their A340-600s by 2022. Now we may see their A340-600s disappear much sooner. Lufthansa is also retiring a number of aircraft, effective immediately. Among these are nearly half of their Airbus A340s. The German carrier doesn’t expect demand to recover for years, so we may see the other disappear sooner than planned as well. It was likely that they would be operating the A340 for several more years as newer A350s and 787s trickle into the fleet. Now Lufthansa may be able to ditch the model entirely sooner rather than later.
Virgin Atlantic, another operator of the A340, said goodbye to their last one in March. This only came two months earlier than planned, however, so it is less of a shock. Finally, we may see perennially-distressed South African Airways ditch the plane. They’d planned to retire them by next year anyway.
Conclusion
I’m saddened that I may never be able to fly on an A340. I’d hoped to do so within the next year, even if I needed to plan a specific short trip around it. The beauty of miles and points is being able to do crazy things like this. I’m hoping that at least one carrier will still be operating the aircraft once the crisis is past.
Have you ever missed out on flying a specific carrier or aircraft?
Performance and economics of a pig. The 340-500 (ultra long range) could carry 267 passengers on YYZ HKG and 100 kg (no thats not a typo) of cargo. The 340-300 was a hopeless pig especially on airfield performance – remember sitting on the flight deck of a YYZ bound aircraft from KIX and we finally rotated with less than 750 feet of runway left. Pilot humour: flight deck ride on 343 ex LHR to YYZ and clawing for altitude when ATC instructed speed increase to M .82 and 1,000 ft. higher rate of climb. The pilot turns to me me and says “should I tell him he can have one or the other but not both”? Dont bemoan the fact that you havent experienced these yet. However if you are bound and determined to fly them LX just plowed a ton of money into theirs to renew the cabin so imagine they will run them out for as long as possible. Mind you, if they get some of the 789s that could change in a hurry.
If by chance you do get the chance to, definitely take it. I flew the A340-300 round trip and it was nice, but similar to an A330. There is certainly a different feeling with 4 engines. You can jut feel it.
Now as for the A340-600, do all you can to fly that beauty. That plane is by far the absolute smoothest and quietest plane I have ever been on. It is even smoother and quieter than the A380 even. While on the ground still, they started the pushback. The plane is so butter smooth that we literally couldn’t feel it. In fact, had I not been looking out of the window I’d have never known.
The take off lasted all of a couple of seconds as the plane is very powerful. Smooth, just butter. Even the thrust was hushed and powerful. The take off roll last only a few seconds and once off the ground, the little engine noise we actually did hear on the ground was gone. I was sitting at a window and right next to the number 3 engine and I tell you…I could not hear a thing from it. So close that I could easily read all of the writing on the engine, yet I heard absolutely nothing.
The plane handles turbulence much better than most others for some reason.
Comparing this to a 747 is a not fair comparison. The 747 just feels mostly like a big 737. You hear engines, you feel turbulence. The A340-600 is unbelievably smooth and quiet. It feels like a true proper wide body. It feels heavy. It feels like it has presence. The 380 has a similar feel with the heaviness, but even the 340-600 just feels so much bigger and heavier. The A330 is not even close. And actually, quit ironically, and to my surprise, the A380 is ‘almost’ as smooth as the A340-600, but not quite.
I did fly recently TAP’s A330neo and it’s the closest I’ve felt to an A340-600. It has elements of it. The 330neo is smoother on the ground the regular 330, but not as much as the 340-600. Still, it’s likely the closest we’ll get to that smoothness again.
But yes, if you see any possibility at all to fly this wonderful plane, do it!! The quiet and smooth power of those glorious 4 engines is definitely a wonderful treat. Feeling those 4 engines is just something really special. Almost feels like the different between driving a V-6 versus a straight 6. You just feel the difference. I am so sad to see it go and it instantly became my absolute favorite plane ever.