Summary
- Lufthansa has 17 A340-300s and 10 A340-600s.
- This winter, it will use its A340-300s on 16 routes from Frankfurt.
- Nine routes from Frankfurt and Munich will see its A340-600s.
Lufthansa has 27 Airbus A340s, as many aircraft as the Boeing 747, and more than all other widebody types and families in its fleet. Like other carriers in the Northern Hemisphere, Lufthansa will switch to winter schedules on October 29th – not far away. This is where the German giant plans to fly its A340s this winter.
16 A340-300 routes
Lufthansa has a long history of using the A340-300. Registered D-AIGB, the first example was delivered to the carrier virtually 30 years ago in November 1993, although it has since been scrapped.
Averaging 24 years, the airline has 17 A340-300s (one isn’t active when writing). All are in the same 279-seat configuration: 30 seats in business, 28 in premium economy, and 221 in economy.
Photo: Croatorum/Shutterstock
Of Lufthansa’s widebodies, only the A330-300 has fewer seats. Combined with being relatively premium-light and economy-heavy, this helps to indicate where it uses its A340-300s, which this winter is as follows, with all routes from Frankfurt, Europe’s fourth-busiest airport (based on September flights).
- Frankfurt-Beijing Capital: daily
- Frankfurt-Cape Town: daily
- Frankfurt-Chennai: daily
- Frankfurt-Denver: daily
- Frankfurt-Seattle: daily
- Frankfurt-Tehran: daily
- Frankfurt-New York JFK: five weekly to daily
- Frankfurt-Atlanta: five weekly to daily
- Frankfurt-Boston: five weekly to daily
- Frankfurt-Detroit: up to six weekly Nov 16th-Jan 14th
- Frankfurt-Lagos: three to five weekly
- Frankfurt-Dallas Fort Worth: up to five weekly from January 17th
- Frankfurt-Chicago O’Hare: four weekly Dec 31st-Jan 16th, then from Mar 16th
- Frankfurt-Nairobi: three weekly
- Frankfurt-Rio de Janeiro: three weekly
- Frankfurt-San Jose (Costa Rica): three weekly
Photo: Croatorum/Shutterstock
Nine A340-600 routes this winter
Unlike the A340-300 mentioned above, the A340-600 variant is deployed from both Lufthansa’s Frankfurt and Munich hubs. Frankfurt has the distinction of being the world’s second-busiest airport for quadjet passenger flights.
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Lufthansa’s A340s are well-appreciated by enthusiasts across the globe. Along with being one of the few major airlines that regularly deploy the type, there are unique factors to be found with the carrier’s units. For instance, its -600s have toilets in the cargo hold. This is an efficient answer to the abundance of cargo capacity.
Averaging 16.2 years, Lufthansa has 10 aircraft in a 297-seat config (when writing, one is in maintenance). There are eight first class seats, 44 in business, 32 in premium economy, and 213 in economy. It is rare among Lufthansa’s widebodies to have first class.
- Frankfurt-Chicago O’Hare: daily (10 weekly in early and mid-Jan) until January 31st; back March 20th
- Frankfurt-Hong Kong: daily
- Frankfurt-Houston Intercontinental: daily from February 1st
- Munich-Boston: daily
- Munich-Miami: daily from January 1st
- Munich-Newark: daily until December 31st
- Munich-New York JFK: daily
- Frankfurt-Bogota: five weekly
- Frankfurt-Boston: nine winter flights = weekly on Thurs in Nov/Dec; Mon in Jan
Will you be flying either variant soon? What are your thoughts regarding these routes? Let us know what you think of the airline and its overall plans in the comment section.
Sources: Cirium, OAG, Google Flights, ch-aviation.com