Only Lufthansa and SWISS use the A340 to the US this week, the seven days beginning December 10th. The A340-300 is now exclusively used, with just 35 departures across eight routes. As more airlines focus on more fuel-efficient twins, the US has just 30% of the A340 flights it had previously.

Lufthansa A340
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

Just eight A340 routes to the US this week

A340 has just two in every 100 seats across the North Atlantic this week, Cirum data shows. That's the same number as the B747-8. In contrast, the fast-growing A321neo, which has quickly become the dominant narrowbody transatlantically, now has more than twice as many. The most-used type is the B787-9, with 14 in every 100 flights.

  • Lufthansa: Frankfurt to Boston; seven-weekly flights by the A340-300 this week
  • Lufthansa: Frankfurt to Denver; seven-weekly by the A340-300
  • Lufthansa: Frankfurt to Orlando: seven-weekly by the A340-300
  • Lufthansa: Frankfurt to Dallas; four-weekly by the A340-300
  • Lufthansa: Frankfurt to Detroit; three-weekly by the A340-300
  • Lufthansa: Frankfurt to Washington; once-weekly by the A340-300
  • Lufthansa: Frankfurt to Philadelphia; once-weekly by the A340-300
  • SWISS: Zurich to Miami; five-weekly by the A340-300
Lufthansa A340 to Orlando
When writing, LH464 is en route from Frankfurt to Orlando. Today it's operated by D-AIGW, a 300-seat aircraft and by far Lufthansa's highest-density A340 configuration. It has 261 economy seats and clearly a relatively low-density premium cabin. It is well-suited to Orlando. Image: Radarbox.com.

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Of course, it's not quite this straightforward

Lufthansa's services from Frankfurt to Boston, Denver, and Orlando only see the quadjet this week, while Dallas, Detroit, and Miami (from Zurich) are primarily operated by the type. Only to Washington and Philadelphia is the A340 the non-dominant equipment, with Lufthansa's 255-seat A330-300 king on both routes.

SWISS A340
In the US, only Miami sees SWISS' A340s this week. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

Wow: 70% fewer A340 flights than in 2019

Lufthansa and SWISS have just 35 A340 departures to the US this week, or five a day on average, according to Cirium. Showing how much things have changed, that's just 30% of what was available in the same period in 2019. Then, there were 118 flights, meaning a drop of 83 weekly.

Iberia, Lufthansa, LOT Polish (using aircraft from Air Belgium), SWISS, SAS, South African, and Virgin Atlantic all used the type to the US two years ago. The A340-600 dominated, followed by the A340-300. The -600 was used by Iberia, Lufthansa, South African, and Virgin.

The author last flew an A340-600 in February 2020 from Heathrow to Atlanta. While it was great to fly it again and for the final time, Virgin's in-flight entertainment was abysmal; it really felt old-fashioned. No surprise: the type to be withdrawn in 2020, even before the pandemic struck.

Airbus A340, Value, 2021
In the same period in 2019, Virgin used the A340 on 15 routes to the US. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

22 A340s between Lufthansa and SWISS

According to ch-aviation.com, Lufthansa has 17 A340-300s, of which 14 are active. With an average age of 22.2 years, they're Lufthansa's oldest widebody, surpassing even the B747-400. Meanwhile, SWISS has five examples, with all but one operational. They're younger (18.2 years) and have just 223 seats against up to 300 with Lufthansa.

What route(s) to the US have you flown the A340? Let us know in the comments.