30 Years of Airbus A340 Operations

The Airbus A340 reached 30 years of commercial operation. First revenue flight was on March 15th - 1993. Lufthansa used an Airbus A340-200, on its flight from Frankfurt to New York (JFK).

https://airwaysmag.com/30-years-a340-op ... v9EFpiu8Co

I'm a huge fan of 777 but I really dislike how it completely dominated the A340. Wish the 777NG were delayed or something so that the A340-500/600 could gain some momentum in the market.

I have had many a good flight on this aircraft from TK , UL , IB and many times on OA .

Thirty years in service, hundreds of aircraft delivered, millions of flight hours flown, zero passenger fatalities. How many other aircraft have achieved this?

Happy birthday A340. Simply the best.

720B wrote:

First revenue flight was on March 15th - 1993. Lufthansa used an Airbus A340-200, on its flight from Frankfurt to New York (JFK).

Do we know the exact aircraft? Lufthansa had taken delivery of D-AIBA and D-AIBB by the date of that flight.

Just saw an LH A340 on final to DFW the other day. Still looks great.

zkojq wrote:

Thirty years in service, hundreds of aircraft delivered, millions of flight hours flown, zero passenger fatalities. How many other aircraft have achieved this?

Happy birthday A340. Simply the best.

720B wrote:

First revenue flight was on March 15th - 1993. Lufthansa used an Airbus A340-200, on its flight from Frankfurt to New York (JFK).

Do we know the exact aircraft? Lufthansa had taken delivery of D-AIBA and D-AIBB by the date of that flight.

"On March 15, 1993, German national flag carrier Lufthansa flew the Airbus A340-200 named "Nürnberg" from Frankfurt Airport (FRA) in Germany to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in the United States"

Not sure if this helps. Is all I could find.

While admittedly being a Boeing fan the A345/6 is one of the best looking birds flying, especially the 600. Something about the long fuselage mixed with the 4 engines. I do have to say the A321 NEOs have become one of my favorites as well, almost looks like a 757.

720B wrote:

"On March 15, 1993, German national flag carrier Lufthansa flew the Airbus A340-200 named "Nürnberg" from Frankfurt Airport (FRA) in Germany to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in the United States"

Not sure if this helps. Is all I could find.

Nürnberg was D-AIBA, so very helpful. Cheers

Aseem747 wrote:

I'm a huge fan of 777 but I really dislike how it completely dominated the A340.

That's because (other than the A343) the A340 platform was woefully noncompetitive..... but it did have a surprise trick up its sleeve: look at what the A330 became.

If anything, imagine what the A330 could've done to the 777, had Airbus not spent so much time distracted by the A340.
An A333 platform with center gear and the A343X's 275t MTOW, would've been quite the performance monster, should Airbus have secured sufficient engines for it.

Personally, quite glad that things worked out how they did, because I believe the A350 to be the marvel of the modern passenger aviation world-- but Airbus might not have been so keen to produce it, in a world with the A340 hadn't failed so spectacularly against the 777.

Aseem747 wrote:

Wish the 777NG were delayed or something so that the A340-500/600 could gain some momentum in the market.

Er, it was.

The 77W was delayed nearly 1.5yrs from its initial launch target; and the 77L purposefully delayed an addition 3yrs on top of that, seeing as it only had one customer for the majority of that time (who funnily enough, never took delivery of it).

zkojq wrote:

Thirty years in service, hundreds of aircraft delivered, millions of flight hours flown, zero passenger fatalities. How many other aircraft have achieved this?

A380 qualifies for all of those except time-- yet IMO still should be lauded for helping break the Air France curse!

But seriously, the A340's safety run was nothing less than remarkable, though somewhat miraculous (e.g. YYZ) as well. Hope we see it replicated in the A350 and 787 as well!

I flew the A340 a few times with SAA. It has the quietest cabin of any type I have flown and, in the SAA configuration, a comfortable interior too. Unfortunately it is all in the past tense for SAA, only one example remains in the fleet and it is used as a spare.

Oh and I flew on the BWIA one which was leased from Air Canada .

zkojq wrote:

Thirty years in service, hundreds of aircraft delivered, millions of flight hours flown, zero passenger fatalities. How many other aircraft have achieved this?

A380 qualifies for all of those except time-- yet IMO still should be lauded for helping break the Air France curse!

In all fairness, Air France did try their best in Toronto

My first A340 flight was in 1995 or 96 on Philippine Airlines from Manila. It was in standard Philippine Airlines livery but the interior gave it away as a former Gulf Air or maybe leased plane, it still had the Gulf Air pink (out of all colors - PINK !) headphones. The pneumatic job at the time. Ever since I am amazed on how quiet the A340 is in cruise - as are the other long rangers from Airbus. Nothing like the constant rumble you get on a B777 that even the most sophisticated noise cancelling phones cannot overcome

ratp101 wrote:

zkojq wrote:

Thirty years in service, hundreds of aircraft delivered, millions of flight hours flown, zero passenger fatalities. How many other aircraft have achieved this?

A380 qualifies for all of those except time-- yet IMO still should be lauded for helping break the Air France curse!

In all fairness, Air France did try their best in Toronto

Sorry, was quoting LAX772 LR

Heavierthanair wrote:

My first A340 flight was in 1985 or 86 on Philippine Airlines from Manila. It was in standard Philippine Airlines livery but the interior gave it away as a former Gulf Air or maybe leased plane, it still had the Gulf Air pink (out of all colors - PINK !) headphones. The pneumatic job at the time. Ever since I am amazed on how quiet the A340 is in cruise - as are the other long rangers from Airbus. Nothing like the constant rumble you get on a B777 that even the most sophisticated noise cancelling phones cannot overcome

Quite sure you mean 1995/96.

My only flight was a near new TG 346 AKL-BKK in 2006 with ample leg room in Y, great service and very quiet as others say. The A3B6 on the next leg felt like the 1980s but nice soft seats I recall.

ZK-NBT wrote:

Quite sure you mean 1995/96.

Thanks, corrected, must have confused it with a trip I had some 10 years earlier. Reminds me of another trip I had with an Air China A340 from Milan to Shanghai in 2010. The business class section was entirely shut off, service absolutely minimalistic with warm beer being served, when I asked for cold beer they offered some ice cubes. Clearly this was my last flight with Air China except for some shuttles from China to Taiwan.
Reminds me of my first flight on a Chinese airline - an A310 of CAAC from Peking to Hongkong. I believe that was in January 1985, an early morning departure. We had two aborted take offs for confidence building I guess, no word from the cockpit for the entire flight. Cleanlyness at the time was not exactly a strong point either, the light fixtures on the fairly new plane being full of dust. I remember on the road to the airport there were few cars but what looked like millions of bikes. I had to wait for some time in front of the airport before the lights were switched on and the doors to the lobby being opened at 7 AM if I remember correctly.
Well, times have changed somewhat

I’ve been lucky to have passengered aboard every version of the A340

A340-200: Sabena
A340-300: Air France, BWIA, Emirates, Gulf Air, Lufthansa, SAS, Swiss
A340-500: Emirates
A340-600: Lufthansa

It has carried me over deserts and oceans, and up until the A380 provided by far the most comfortable and quiet ride. More than that the aircraft just looks right, and in my opinion the proportions of the A340-500 are simply second-to-none.

Getting hard to find one these days, otherwise it would still be the go-to option.

I got to fly on VS's 343's and 346's and LX's 343, with LX I spent a grand total of 8 round trips SFO-ZRH, very nice aircraft from a pac point of view.

Flown Virgin A340-600s so many times, London-NYC. Loved that plane. Felt safe, powerful, calm and comfortable.

I’ll be flying my first A340 in May, LH A346 ORD-MUC, just a mere matter of weeks before the schedule switches the equipment to A359. Glad to be adding it to the logbook by the skin of my teeth.

Thankful I got the opportunity to fly both the 345 and 346, but never experienced the hair dryers.

I've only had three sectors on the A340, all on LH -300s ( SIN-FRA, and a round trip between FRA and Tehran). I don't travel much these days, so unlikely to get an LH -600 in before they're gone forever
I remember Airbus doing a non-stop Toulouse - Auckland demonstration flight, I recall they were really surprised at how many people went to AKL to see it arrive. It flew back non-stop as well, completing TLS-AKL-TLS in a little over 48 hours round trip

B777LRF wrote:

I’ve been lucky to have passengered aboard every version of the A340

A340-200: Sabena
A340-300: Air France, BWIA, Emirates, Gulf Air, Lufthansa, SAS, Swiss
A340-500: Emirates
A340-600: Lufthansa

It has carried me over deserts and oceans, and up until the A380 provided by far the most comfortable and quiet ride. More than that the aircraft just looks right, and in my opinion the proportions of the A340-500 are simply second-to-none.

Getting hard to find one these days, otherwise it would still be the go-to option.

I also flew all models: A340-200: LH, A340-300: SQ, A340-500: SQ and A340-600: TG. The model I actually flew most was the A340-500 including SIN-EWR in Y... That said, Y was a 2-3-2 configuration which was only sold at full economy fares and was actually more comfortable than today's SQ premium economy. Takeoff from EWR on return to SIN was the notorious climb due to curvature of the earth. It took 45min to reach cruising altitude for a 18:45 flight straight over the city centre of London. Today's A350 does an even longer flight path in around 17:30.

Sadly never got a chance to fly on the A340, and I don’t foresee a chance coming before the remaining limited fleet is retired. However it has for a long time been one of my favourite airliners. It just looks right. Both the -300 and -500 id rate as probably the most perfectly proportioned airliners. And then there’s the -600 which looks ridiculously long, bringing its own charm.

Kiwiandrew wrote:

I've only had three sectors on the A340, all on LH -300s ( SIN-FRA, and a round trip between FRA and Tehran). I don't travel much these days, so unlikely to get an LH -600 in before they're gone forever
I remember Airbus doing a non-stop Toulouse - Auckland demonstration flight, I recall they were really surprised at how many people went to AKL to see it arrive. It flew back non-stop as well, completing TLS-AKL-TLS in a little over 48 hours round trip

I remember that, Dad took me to see it, parked on gate 2 at AKL.

ratp101 wrote:

ratp101 wrote:

zkojq wrote:

Thirty years in service, hundreds of aircraft delivered, millions of flight hours flown, zero passenger fatalities. How many other aircraft have achieved this?

A380 qualifies for all of those except time-- yet IMO still should be lauded for helping break the Air France curse!

In all fairness, Air France did try their best in Toronto

Sorry, was quoting LAX772 LR

Indeed, hence my "the A340's safety run was nothing less than remarkable, though somewhat miraculous (e.g. YYZ) as well" from earlier.

I did fly Lufthansa's A340 back in 1996. BOG-FRA-BOG. A great ride.

I flew on:

OS 342 VIE-JFK
EW 343 CGN-VIE
EK 345 VIE-DXB
LH 346 FRA-KUL

The most outstanding feature was the underfloor bathroom and kitchen as well as the water tab on the 346.

I like the 340 a lot. 2-4-2 is comfortable, the cabin is not that noisy and 4 engines are cool as well. Some keep posting that the A340 is so quiet inside... to me the A380 and Il-96 are still way quieter.

I tried the A350 on AY once, not so much my preferred means of transportation. oh well, time goes on, but to me, the A340 is one of the most joy bringing acft. Sadly they are leaving.

I also remember the 772 when the GE90 version was called IGW instead of ER. In terms of comfort, the A340 was way better. At the time the 777 appeared, it was a hard pick between those large GE90 and the 4 fans on the 340 in terms of aeronautical thrill factor. Today the 777 is just such a pain because they are everywhere, same goes for the 320 and W38 (or the nosdiving variants thereoff).

If one has the chance to get on an A340 and you have never been on one, do it. The sooner the better, though I kind of think that they will be around with Mahan for quite some time.

Some great memories here.

I, for one, am thrilled to have not one but two A340-300 flights in the next fortnight. ZRH-JNB with LX and CPT-FRA with LH. With the quiet cruise, they are my two favourite overnight routes from Europe to South Africa.

Still love the A340, by far one of my all time favourites - only been on AC and LH birds, but will never forget those flights.

I was happy to be able to fly on the A340-300 - it was such a quiet plane that I managed some sleep on board. I was seldom able to sleep soundly on flights.

I have always wondered how well the A340-300 would do if a NEO with the PW GTFs was made available. Too bad no one thought of doing this!

The A340 was the first major new plane type that was developed during my early life as a plane spotter.
To day, I still think it's the best looking, most elegant plane every built.

In the early days, my father and I did quite some chasing of those A340's on spotting trips.

First time I saw it, flyby at Charleroi airshow, may 1992:


First time in Brussels, on a demo for Sabena, probably winter 1992/1993:


First operational, summer of 1993:

I have the dubious distinction of having flown on the last A340 ever built. The plane was Iberia's EC-LFS, "Ciudad de México".
Love every iteration of the 340.
Flew on it in 2019, from LHR - MAD. Shortly after they were all removed from the fleet during the pandemic...

Ty134A wrote:

[...]
The most outstanding feature was the underfloor bathroom and kitchen as well as the water tab on the 346.

I like the 340 a lot. 2-4-2 is comfortable, the cabin is not that noisy and 4 engines are cool as well.
[...]

YES!!! I think I have flown on the 340 just once, just pre-COVID, on LH from IAD to FRA or MUC I don't remember, and it was love at first sight (or maybe at first "seat" lol). The bathrooms downstairs were a surprise, and a nice one. And yes, it was very very comfortable. It's too bad I'll probably never get a chance, at least from IAD.

If I look at my list of favorite airplanes, I sometimes think that my liking an airplane brings bad luck: A340, B747, B767, A380, A330 -- totally unimpressed by my first (and so far only) B787 trip, B777 OK but cramped, I haven't tried the A350. However, what I think I miss is the more generous space that airlines used to offer before the race to the bottom started.

I think I would have thoroughly hated a 10-abreast A340, if it existed.

I flew on the short-lived SQ A340-300 "Celestar" from SIN to BKK, and did wonder why it was doing a 2 hour flight.

SQ's 343 frames went to Boeing in PartEx for 772s (a big issue at the time, Airbus initially said they would not cover their warranties but later relented). Some eventually ended up at EK.

Got to fly A340 twice with Air Tahiti Nui (round trip to PPT from LAX). I enjoyed both flights very much. One thing that caught my attention was that on takeoff it sounded like ice cubes rolling, or sand being poured, or something was rolling in the overhead bins (something w/ A/C? Could never figure it out as it subsided shortly after takeoff - on both flights. Definitely wasn't luggage rolling around). Neverthelesa ANY flight to Paradise on Earth would be amazing regardless of equipment.

As far as looks A345 was the PRETTIEST and SEXIEST of all airplanes right there with all variants of 747 (i think perfectly proportioned of aircraft length to the size of those 4 huge engines, much more so than the hair dryer engines! )

Oddly enough, I had more flights on A340s than A330s. A343 with LH, AC, CX, A345 with EK, A346 with IB. Only 3 A330 flights: QR, KL and UX.

flee wrote:

I
I have always wondered how well the A340-300 would do if a NEO with the PW GTFs was made available. Too bad no one thought of doing this!

I'm afraid not too well. Considering the reliability problems of aircraft with 2 GTF engines, imagine how bad it would on an aircraft with 4! It would be the Lockheed Constellation of modern times

Jalap wrote:

First operational, summer of 1993:

The A342 looks a bit like the Convair 880, 4 engines on a seemingly small aircraft. Too bad I wasn't able to enjoy a flight with it.

aerdingus wrote:

I have the dubious distinction of having flown on the last A340 ever built. The plane was Iberia's EC-LFS, "Ciudad de México".
Love every iteration of the 340.
Flew on it in 2019, from LHR - MAD. Shortly after they were all removed from the fleet during the pandemic...

I flew on that aircraft too in 2019! SCL-MAD, PE with that own small mini cabin and own lavatory. One of the best flights ever. I was on an A359 in PE 3 weeks earlier, but the A346 experience was so much nicer.

IADFCO wrote:

I think I would have thoroughly hated a 10-abreast A340, if it existed.

So would I, considering the standard is 8 abreast Y in the A340 Not sure any airline operated the A340 9 abreast in Y, AirAsiaX perhaps?

flee wrote:

I have always wondered how well the A340-300 would do if a NEO with the PW GTFs was made available. Too bad no one thought of doing this!

Well, that was the original idea, to fit geared turbofans. But Pratt at the time was unable to come up with a working proposal so to prevent the thing from becoming a glider Airbus had to compromise and CFM 56 engines were fitted instead. That did not exactly help the planes fuel consumption

Talking of AAX, I flew Stansted to KL in one of their A343s soon after they acquired it from AC. Paid for some version of a PE offering, but as they were delayed re-furbing to their standard, we flew in leather AC business class seats!

Heavierthanair wrote:

flee wrote:

I have always wondered how well the A340-300 would do if a NEO with the PW GTFs was made available. Too bad no one thought of doing this!

Well, that was the original idea, to fit geared turbofans. But Pratt at the time was unable to come up with a working proposal so to prevent the thing from becoming a glider Airbus had to compromise and CFM 56 engines were fitted instead. That did not exactly help the planes fuel consumption

The infamous PW Superfan. Wiki says it was actually offered by IAE which I don't recall

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAE_SuperFan

LAX772LR wrote:

The 77W was delayed nearly 1.5yrs from its initial launch target; and the 77L purposefully delayed an addition 3yrs on top of that, seeing as it only had one customer for the majority of that time (who funnily enough, never took delivery of it).

That's interesting, I hadn't heard of that - I'm guessing the original customer you're referring to is SQ?

Flew AF 340-200 MEX-CDG
AF 340-300 CDG-IAD x 3
LH 340-300 SJO-FRA
LH 340-600 LAX-MUC

All of them great experiences. My favorite is probably the 600, a majestic vessel
In may, I'll be flying it once again, IAD-MUC, a 600, back from storage

tmu101 wrote:

As far as looks A345 was the PRETTIEST and SEXIEST of all airplanes right there with all variants of 747

I'd call the A345 easily the ugliest commercial aircraft ever produced; stubby length and weird profile due to a 4wheeled center gear. At least the A346 had length to balance it out. Then again, was never a fan of the Hunchback of Puget Sound either.

Funny how perspective works.

flyer1225 wrote:

That's interesting, I hadn't heard of that - I'm guessing the original customer you're referring to is SQ?

Nope, BR.

For nearly a half decade EVA was the only 77L customer, wanting them for nonstop flights to AMS due to Taiwanese airlines' then-inability to utilize Chinese airspace.

After the 9/11 fallout, Boeing put the aircraft into a nearly 3yr-development freeze, at which point the 77W entered service, with a surprising 6% greater range efficiency than promised. BR's original plan was to fly its 77Ws to AMS via BKK, but after these two unforeseen events, it found that the 77W could do TPE-AMS nonstop with more than enough payload to meet its needs. So it converted its 77L orders to more 77W.

By then however, EK, DL, and PK had all ordered, with the latter becoming the new launch customer.

AngMoh wrote:

The model I actually flew most was the A340-500 including SIN-EWR in Y [...]
Takeoff from EWR on return to SIN was the notorious climb due to curvature of the earth. It took 45min to reach cruising altitude...

Are you sure? The A345 have the RR Trents which have 4×90kN more power than the A343's CFMs. I thought even the A346 performed much better than the A343...

Yooo the A340 is such a widebodied y2k B707 <3

I love aircraft with four engines, they're just more beautiful.
I've flown on 340s many times on these sectors

2000s to 2010
LAN Chile SCL-IPC-PPT (the A340 wasn't a regular on that route!)
LAN Chile SYD-AKL-SCL
LAN Airlines and Iberia A340-300 SCL-MAD
Lufthansa FRA-HYD in 2008
2010s-pandemic
Iberia A340-600 SCL-MAD

A little story, in 2005 I was 7yo I was flying with my little sister and mum BRU-MAD-SCL on Iberia. On our MAD stop I saw a LAN Chile A340 next to our Iberia A340.. I cried and told her maybe that's the last Lan Chile A340.. (they already changed to just LAN), she went to the next gate and asked if we could get on it (IB and LA still codeshared then) they said the plane was full.. ahhh but i loved seeing her try.

xl0hr wrote:

AngMoh wrote:

The model I actually flew most was the A340-500 including SIN-EWR in Y [...]
Takeoff from EWR on return to SIN was the notorious climb due to curvature of the earth. It took 45min to reach cruising altitude...

Are you sure? The A345 have the RR Trents which have 4×90kN more power than the A343's CFMs. I thought even the A346 performed much better than the A343...

Yes, I am sure. Keep in mind, it was a full flight (2 class, about 170 pax if I remember correctly) on a longer route than usual (normally it was a more polar route) for what is already the world's longest flight, so it should have been close to MTOW. The whole takeoff felt different including the amount of runway used. On the SIN-EWR leg we had a much lighter load (Business full, Economy near empty. I was seated economy because we could not get a business seat) and we reached cruising altitude as per normal.

AngMoh wrote:

Yes, I am sure. Keep in mind, it was a full flight (2 class, about 170 pax if I remember correctly) on a longer route than usual (normally it was a more polar route) for what is already the world's longest flight, so it should have been close to MTOW. The whole takeoff felt different including the amount of runway used. On the SIN-EWR leg we had a much lighter load (Business full, Economy near empty. I was seated economy because we could not get a business seat) and we reached cruising altitude as per normal.

I remember seeing the A345's shallow climb rate from the viewing area in Changi. Quad engined planes do take their time climbing! However, the A330 is not great either - a SQ 777 pilot told me they don't like following A330s as they were slow!

Correct me if I’m wrong, but still not a single A340 pax fatality. Just the silly Etihad engine run drama.

T54A wrote:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but still not a single A340 pax fatality. Just the silly Etihad engine run drama.

Don't forget AF358 - yes no fatalities on this one too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pASuwW6K9Ww

I remember driving past CDG in April 1993 and catching my first glimpse of an A340. It must have been F-GLZB. Very excited.

I never got on a -200 or a -500 (much to my disappointment) but I've very much enjoyed 16 flights on the -300 (Sabena, Cathay, Swiss, China Airlines, Turkish, Lufthansa) and 17 on the -600 (Lufthansa, Virgin, Thai, South African).

Alas, I doubt if there are many more to come.

No, it wasn't a huge success in the market but it got Airbus firmly into the long-haul game. And, as has been noted many times above, it is a favourite with passengers: 2-4-2 in Y and a very quiet cabin.