Lufthansa Just Flew Its Last Airbus A340-600, Once the World’s Longest Airliner

Lufthansa has retired its last Airbus A340-600. The final scheduled commercial flight, LH419, flew from Washington, D.C., to Frankfurt on Monday, October 19, in about eight hours and five minutes, carrying 267 passengers and 15 crew. The aircraft was registered D-AIHW and was commanded by Captain Francesco Sciortino, a Lufthansa board member and Frankfurt hub manager.

The airline took its first A340-600 in November 2003 and operated 24 of the type over 23 years, carrying more than 40 million passengers. At 75.3 meters, it was once the world’s longest passenger aircraft. Along the way it supported the CARIBIC climate research program and carried the German national team to the 2014 World Cup, and in March 2022 it was the first of the type to return to Washington after the pandemic grounding.

The retirement is part of a wider fleet renewal. Lufthansa says the A340-300, A330-200 and Boeing 747-400 will also leave the fleet by 2027. Airbus A350-1000s and Boeing 777-9s are replacing them, aircraft the airline says are quieter and use about 30 percent less fuel. Eighteen Boeing 787-9s are already in service, with 11 more due by 2027.

By 2028, Lufthansa expects about 70 percent of its long-haul fleet to be next-generation aircraft. For passengers, that means more modern cabins and quieter flights on long routes over the coming years, while the older four-engine jets that defined much of the airline’s long-haul network gradually disappear from schedules.

Sources: Lufthansa Group Newsroom, FlyingInIreland Daily Aviation Brief