Summary Lufthansa leads the market with A340 flights, making up 60% of ASMs in August. Edelweiss utilizes a higher-density A340 fleet for long-haul leisure flights. Mahan Air operates some of the oldest A340s, primarily on regional routes.
The Airbus A340 entered commercial service over 30 years ago with Lufthansa in 1993, and since then, the four different versions of the aircraft (-200, -300, -500, and -600) have gone on to fly with nearly 50 different airlines. However, the aircraft is now in its twilight years, increasingly replaced by more fuel-efficient twinjets. But if flying aboard a large quadjet is still on your bucket list, a few airlines still offer A340 flights.
So, let’s look at the carriers offering the greatest availability of A340 flights this August. The A340 started its commercial journey three decades ago on March 15. Lufthansa leads the way with four out of every five flights An analysis of A340 flight data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, shows that, on average, there are nearly 90 daily A340 flights in August and 2.
6 billion available seat miles (ASMs). In total, 60% of these are provided by Lufthansa , which still maintains a sizable A340 fleet. And when you consider that Edelweiss and SWISS are second and fourth on the list, the Lufthansa Group accounts for 4 out of 5 of all A340 flights in August.
Let’s take a closer look at the A340 operations of these different airlines. Lufthansa With the largest fleet by far, it is perhaps unsurprising that the German flag carrier accounts for 60% of all available seat miles with A340s. Lufthansa has operated 57 A340s over the years and still has 27 active aircraft in service.
These are split across two different sub-types: A340-300 (17 operational): These entered service in 1993 and have an average age of 24.9 years. Configured with 279 seats, they fly exclusively from Frankfurt.
They are gradually being replaced by A350-900s. A340-600 (10 operational): The largest A340 variant. These entered into service ten years after the -300s and have an average age of 17.
0 years. They have 297 seats configured with a more premium layout that includes eight first-class seats. These fly primarily from Munich and are set to be replaced with the A350-1000.
Lufthansa’s A340s primarily connect its Frankfurt and Munich hubs to US destinations. In August, the A340s will be flying to 13 US cities, including daily services to Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, New York JFK, Newark, and Miami. Some 11 US airports will see the aging quadjet.
Edelweiss Edelweiss is a Swiss leisure airline, a sister company of SWISS, and part of the Lufthansa Group. It currently has a fleet of five A340-300s, with an average age of 20.8 years.
These will be fully replaced by the six A350-900s that Edelweiss will start taking delivery of in 2025. The A340s have a higher density than most A340s flying today, with 314 seats in a two-class configuration. This and the relatively long sectors they fly on significantly boost Edelweiss’s ASMs over other airlines flying the A340.
The most popular flights in August include Vancouver (29 return flights), Tampa (16) and Las Vegas (14). Mahan Air Iranian carrier Mahan Air maintains a mixed fleet of A340s, a legacy of years of sanctions against its home country and the need to extend the lifespan of the aircraft it has on hand. It currently operates one of the oldest A340s still flying, an A340-200 that was originally delivered to Austrian Airlines nearly 30 years ago.
In addition, it has eight A340-300s with an average age of 27.0 years and four A340-600s with an average age of 20.1 years.
With a relatively large fleet, Mahan Air will fly an average of 20 flights daily with its A340s. However, many of these are regional flights, such as three daily flights to Dubai and Istanbul. Its longest routes are to China, where it serves Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou with 2-4 weekly flights.
SWISS The SWISS widebody fleet is dominated by the Boeing 777 and Airbus A330. However, it still maintains four A340-300s, with an average age of 20.8 years.
Each aircraft is premium-heavy, with eight first class and 42 business class seats, and just 215 seats in total. All four aircraft were delivered from the manufacturer to SWISS in 2003-04 and have flown with the airline their entire lives. The SWISS A340s operate on just five routes from its Zurich base.
They provide daily service to Johannesburg and Shanghai and 3-4 times a week to Miami and Seoul. Interestingly, Swiss also operates the shortest A340 flight, with eight round-trips in August between Zurich and Geneva with the A340. One route is within Europe, but it won't be around for long.
Kam Air Afghanistan-based Kam Air has a fleet of five A340-300s that it has acquired over the years from carriers such as Air Tahiti Nui , Iberia , and South African Airways. With an average age of 22.5 years, they are configured in a very dense, 346-seat all-economy layout, indicating how little demand there is in its home market for a premium product.
The Kam Air A340s are used primarily to connect Kabul with the capitals of neighboring nations, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Delhi, Jeddah, Riyadh, Islamabad, and Tehran. These shorter routes mean that while the airline offers more A340 seats than most in August, its ASMs put it fifth on the list of A340 carriers. The remaining A340 carriers All the remaining carriers have less than 100 A340 flights in August.
In some cases, this is due to the size of the fleet - as South African Airways’ last remaining A340-300 (from a fleet that was once 24-strong), which currently flies the Johannesburg-Perth routing. In other cases, it is just age, such as Conviasa from Venezuela, where half of the 6-strong A340 fleet leased from Mahan Air remains grounded for maintenance. However, perhaps the most interesting A340 flight that is not on the list is with Hi Fly.
The carrier has made multiple trips to Wolf’s Fang Runway in Antarctica in each of the past three years, using an Airbus A340-300, the largest passenger aircraft to land on the continent. Be sure to keep an eye out for the next trip, and in the meantime, enjoy Simple Flying’s archive reporting of this momentous journey..
