Like with the other two major quad jets, Boeing 747 and Airbus A380, the number of active Airbus A340s has dwindled considerably over the last few years. That’s especially the case with aircraft used on scheduled passenger routes. Continue...
Like with the other two major quad jets, Boeing 747 and Airbus A380, the number of active Airbus A340s has dwindled considerably over the last few years. That’s especially the case with aircraft used on scheduled passenger routes.
Continue reading this guide to find out which airlines still fly the A340 and what routes they use it on, as well as what other operators like governments still use the type.
Both Swiss and its subsidiary Edelweiss Air continue to operate the A340.
Airlines Using A340s on Scheduled Flights in 2024
Eleven airlines continue to use the Airbus A340 on scheduled passenger flights.
Of those, Lufthansa and Mahan Air operate ten or more airframes while the remaining ones only operate a handful at most. Not listed below is Azerbaijan Airlines which appears to still own some A340s but does not fly them. Whether or not those will return to service remains to be seen.
Conviasa
Venezuela’s Conviasa, together with Iran’s Mahan Air which I will talk about later on, operates the most diverse Airbus A340 fleet. Namely, it has one A340-200, three A340-600s (one of which, YV3545, hasn’t flown since August 2023), and one A340-300.
The A340-200 (YV3554) currently operates mainly flights connecting Venezuela’s, Nicaragua’s, and Cuba’s capitals. Sometimes the flights operate separately (i.e. Caracas – Managua and Caracas – Havana) while sometimes they operate as a one-stop route (i.e. Caracas – Managua – Havana).
The A340-600s (YV3535 and YV3507) can regularly be seen on both the Caracas – Porlamar domestic route as well as a variety of international routes out of Caracas. The latter include flights to destinations like Mexico City (the city’s secondary Felipe Ángeles International Airport), Tehran, Moscow Vnukovo, and Havana.
Lastly, the A340-300 (YV3507) was inactive for a while but made some test flights in December 2023. This hopefully means it will be reintroduced on scheduled flights in the near future.
Edelweiss Air
Edelweiss Air operates five Airbus A340-300s. All of these airframes were originally delivered to Swiss in 2003 and continue to operate under the same registration as they used to wear in Swiss’s fleet. One of them joined Edelweiss in 2016 (HB-JMG), one in 2017 (HB-JMF), two in 2018 (HB-JMD and HB-JME), and one in 2023 (HB-JMC).
The Edelweiss Air A340s operate from Zurich to a wide variety of holiday destinations around the world. The vast majority of the destinations are not served daily.
Among others, the A340s can be seen on flights to Cancun, Cape Town, Cartagena via Bogota, Havana, Kilimanjaro via Zanzibar, Liberia via San Jose (Costa Rica), Male via Colombo, Montego Bay via Puerto Plata, Phuket, Punta Cana, Tampa, and Victoria via Port Louis.
Edelweiss Air’s A340-300s are equipped with business and economy class seats that are similar to Swiss’s albeit feature different finishing touches. Interestingly, unlike the vast majority of other airlines (all other airlines?), Edelweiss Air sandwiched business class between two economy class cabins on its A340s rather than putting it at the front of the aircraft.
Iran Aseman Airlines
While Iran Aseman Airlines only has one Airbus A340 in its fleet, it is a special one. Registered EP-APA, the aircraft was originally a prototype used by Airbus. It is the second A340 ever built. Between its life as a testbed/demonstration aircraft and joining Iran Aseman’s fleet, the aircraft spent almost 15 years flying for Virgin Atlantic Airways as G-VHOL.
If things haven’t changed since I flew on EP-APA a few years back, the aircraft is still equipped with seats originally used by Virgin Atlantic, including what were the world’s first herringbone business class seats.
In the past, the aircraft operated a variety of different routes including domestic ones like Tehran – Shiraz (the route I flew it on). Nowadays, though, the aircraft seems to be solely deployed on Iran Aseman’s flights between Tehran (Imam Khomeini Airport) and Istanbul.
Kam Air
Afganistan’s Kam Air has four Airbus A340-300s in its fleet.
The youngest of those (YA-KAA) was originally built for Air Tahiti Nui in 2005 and acquired by Kam Air in 2023. The three older airframes (YA-KME, YA-KMH, and YA-KMU) were originally built for Iberia in 1999 and 2001 and acquired by Kam Air in 2018 and 2019.
Kam Air uses the ex-Air Taihiti Nui airframe almost exclusively on its double daily flights from Kabul to Dubai. The remaining three airframes operate primarily flights from the Afghan cities of Kabul, Kandahar, and Mazar-i-Sharif to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
Lufthansa
Despite having cut down the number of A340s in its fleet considerably, Lufthansa is currently the largest operator of the type in the world. It has almost 27 active airframes including 17 A340-300s and 10 A340-600s. In the past, it also operated the A340-200 of which it was one of the launch customers.
Its shorter A340-300s seat 279 passengers across economy, premium economy, and business classes. The A340-600s come in two configurations, one seating 281 and the other 297 passengers in four classes – i.e. the three classes shared with the A340-300s and first class.
While Lufthansa’s A340-600s fly out of both Frankfurt and Munich, its A340-300s nowadays only operate out of Frankfurt.
The A340-300s operate to well over a dozen destinations around the world including cities like Abuja and Cape Town in Africa, Dallas and Los Angeles in North America, Bogota and Rio de Janeiro in South America, Tehran in the Middle East, and Beijing and Chennai in Asia.
The A340-600s operate primarily to destinations aronud the United States including Boston, Chicago, NEw York JFK, Newark, and Washington Dulles.
It’s not clear when exactly Lufthansa’s A340-300s and A340-600s will be retired but the airline is in the process of replacing the former with A350-900s and 787-9s and the latter with A350-1000s (of which it has yet to receive the first airframe).
Learn more about Lufthansa A340 fleet, routes, and retirement plans
Mahan Air
Iran’s Mahan Air is right now the second largest A340 operator in the world after Lufthansa. Together with Conviasa, it also has the most diverse A340 fleet in terms of variants.
The airline has one A340-200 (EP-MJA), five A340-300s (EP-MJE, EP-MMA, EP-MMB, EP-MMC, and EP-MMT), and three A340-600s (EP-MME, EP-MMQ, and EP-MMR). The A340-200 and one of the A340-300s joined its fleet recently, in 2023. The remaining aircraft have been with Mahan Air since between 2013 and 2017.
Mahan Air’s A340-200 almost exclusively operates flights between Tehran Imam Khomeini Airport and Istanbul.
The routes operated by the A340-300 and A340-600 overlap to an extent. Among others, the A340-300s and A340-600s make an appearance on domestic flights from Tehran Mehrabad (e.g., Bandar Abbas, Kerman, and Mashad) and international flights from Tehran Imam Khomeini (e.g., Beirut, Delhi, Dubai, Guangzhou, Kabul, Phuket) and Mashad (e.g. Beirut and Kabul).
Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas
The Spanish charter operator Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas had, until recently, two A340-300s and now is down to one.
Plus Ultra’s active A340-300, EC-MQM, was originally delivered to Air France in 2001 and then acquired by Plus Ultra in 2017. It still operates with the same 30 business class and 265 economy class seats it used to when it was in Air France’s fleet.
The airframe that is no longer with Plus Ultra, EC-NBU, was first delivered to Iberia in 2002 before serving with Philippines Airlines between 2014 and 2018. Plus Ultra started using the aircraft in 2019 but returned it to its lessor in August 2023.
I included Plus Ultra in this section even though it is a charter airline because right now EC-MQM operates almost exclusively scheduled flights on behalf of Cubana. Among others, it operates the Cuban flag carrier’s flights to Madrid and Buenos Aires. How long this arrangement will continue remains to be seen given that Cubana recently reactivated one of its Ilyushin Il-96s.
South African Airways
In the past, South African Airways used to be a major A340 operator which, at one point or another, had over 20 different A340-200, A340-300, and A340-600 airframes in its fleet. Back in those days, its A340s could be seen at airports around the world including London Heathrow, New York JFK, and Hong Kong.
Unfortunately, today, South African Airways is only left with a sole A340-300. The airframe, registered ZS-SXF, was delivered to the airline brand new in 2005. It is equipped with a total of 252 seats including 38 in business class and 215 in economy class.
The aircraft operates flights within Africa. Among other destinations, it mainly seems to operate flights from Johannesburg to Abidjan via Acra. Now and then it also operates domestic flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Surinam Airways
Another operator with just a sole Airbus A340-300 is Surinam Airways.
The A340 is Surinam Airways’ only widebody aircraft and is used exclusively on the airline’s sole long-haul route, connecting Surinam’s capital Paramaribo with Amsterdam (Surinam used to be a Dutch colony).
Surinam Airways’ sole A340-300 is registered PZ-TCW and was originally delivered to Finnair in 2008 as OH-LQD. After that, it was also briefly owned by two charter operators – Air Belgium and Romania’s Legend Airlines. The aircraft joined Surinam Airways’ fleet in 2023. Before that, the airline used a 777-200ER, a different A340-300, and a 747-300 on the same route.
Swiss
While in the past, Swiss operated over a dozen Airbus A340-300s, it is now down to just four. Six airframes made between 1996 and 1999 for Air Canada and Austrian and delivered to Swiss in 2007 and 2008 were retired by the airline around 2016 and 2017. Five airframes were transferred to Swiss’s subsidiary Edelweiss Air.
The remaining four airframes (HB-JMA, HB-JMB, HB-JMH, and HB-JMI) were delivered to the airline in 2003 and 2004.
The Swiss A340s are equipped with 215 seats in four classes including eight first class seats in a 1-2-1 layout, 42 staggered business class seats in a 1-2-1/2-2-1 layout, 21 premium economy class seats in a 2-3-2 layout, and 144 economy class seats in a 2-4-2 layout.
Swiss currently uses its A340-300s on long-haul flights from Zurich to Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Miami, and Shanghai.
The Swiss A340s will be replaced with Airbus A350s. The first of those is set to enter the airline’s fleet in 2025. As such, the Swiss A340s will be around at least until then and for a couple of years after that depending on the pace with which Swiss receives the A350s.
Learn more about Swiss A340 fleet, routes, and retirement plans
Syrian Air
Lastly, Syrian Air has one active Airbus A340-300 in its fleet. Until September 2022 it had two but one of those, YK-AZA, was ferried to Tehran Imam Khomeini Airport in September 2022 and hasn’t left the airport since then.
The active Syrian Air A340-300 is registered YK-AZB and was originally delivered to Olympic Airways in 1999. Syrian Air acquired the aircraft in 2020. The airframe spent most of its time between 2009 when Olympic Airlines stopped using it and 2022 when it was delivered to Syrian Air in storage.
Currently, Syrian Air is deploying the A340-300 on flights between Syria and the United Arab Emirates, primarily between Damascus and Dubai.
Charter and Government Airbus A340 Operators
In addition to the airlines above which operate the Airbus A340 on scheduled flights, there are also several charter and government operators of the type.
Starting with charter operators, most notably, Malta’s AirX and HiFly and Romania’s Legend Airlines operate A340-300s.
As for government operators, the following countries’ governments or air forces use A340s, primarily as VIP transport aircraft:
Algeria (A340-500) Egypt (A340-200) Eswatini (A340-300) Iran (A340-300) Kuwait (A340-500) Libya (A340-200) Qatar (A340-200, A340-300, A340-500) Saudi Arabia (A340-200) Thailand (A340-500) Turkey (A340-500)Lastly, the casino operator Sands has an Airbus A340-500.
The government of Kuwait operates an A340-500.
While in the past Thai Airways used to operate A340-500s, nowadays only the Royal Thai Air Force operates one.
Summary
These days, only a handful of operators use the Airbus A340 on scheduled flights and most of the active airframes are of two variants – the A340-300 and the A340-600. Lufthansa is the largest operator of the type with still over 20 A340s in service. Mahan Air is the second largest.
Several other operators including charter airlines like AirX and Legend Airlines, as well as governments and air forces (Egypt, Iran, Qatar, Thailand, etc.) also continue to use the A340.
The post Airbus A340 Operators: Which Airlines Fly the Aircraft in 2024? appeared first on KN Aviation.