The opportunity to fly an Airbus A310 is vanishingly tiny. Unless you live in Iran or Afghanistan or plan to visit, your only hope is to work for one of the few freight companies, military, governments, or other organizations still using the small widebody. Many years ago, I flew a Kenya Airways A310-300 on a fifth freedom service between Amsterdam and London Heathrow. Strangely, I've flown more Il-96s than A310s.

31 A310s remain

According to ch-aviation.com, just 31 A310s are left, as summarized in the table below. Of these, approximately 23 are active, with Flightradar24 used to confirm this where feasible. Not surprisingly, I cannot verify with accuracy whether the Canadian Armed Forces and the Spanish Air Force aircraft are active, so I've assumed that they are.

Over half of the active A310s are in passenger or freight operations with Ariana Afghan, Iran Air, Iran Airtour, Royal Jordanian (freight), and ULS Airlines Cargo (no prize for guessing its role).

When writing, four A310s were airborne, as shown below, of which Mahan Air operated three and National Legacy, a Kuwait business charter operator, one. Not shown are two others: Iran Air's sole A310-300 had just landed in Istanbul, while ULS Airlines Cargo had just arrived in Erbil, Iraq.

Airborne A310s when writing

The table

Some 10 of the ~23 active A310s are in Iran. This is because of the sanctions that impede any real development for the country's airlines, including aircraft replacement. Consequently, they continue to operate older and rarer aircraft – exciting to avgeeks! – and they don't really grow.

Operator

A310s

Number active

Comments

Mahan Air

10

7

A310-300

Canadian Armed Forces

5

5

Don't appear on Flightradar24; assumed to be active. One operates for the Government of Canada. A310-300, A310-300 MRTT

ULS Airlines Cargo

3

2

A310-300F

Iran Airtour

2

2

A310-300

Spanish Air Force

2

2

Don't appear on Flightradar24; assumed to be active. A310-300

Airbus Defence and Space

1

1

A310-300 MRTT

Al-Atheer Aviation

1

0

A310-300. VVIP operator

Ariana Afghan

1

1

A310-300

Asia Sky Lines

1

0

A310-300

Iran Air

1

1

A310-300

National Legacy

1

1

A310-300. Business charter

Royal Jordanian

1

1

A310-300F

SA Novespace

1

0

A310-300 Zero-G

Tehran Airline

1

0

A319-300

31

23

Mahan Air Airbus A310
Photo: Fasttailwind I Shutterstock.

What about Ariana?

Afghanistan's flag carrier has one A310-300. Registered YA-CAV, it is 34.1 years old and was initially delivered to Turkish Airlines in 1989. It entered Ariana's fleet in 2009, although ch-aviation.com shows it has had various stints with Iran's Taban Airlines.

YA-CAV remains active, typically flying between Kabul and Jeddah, together with Kandahar-Jeddah, Kabul-Delhi, and Kabul-Herat. When writing on March 20th, the aircraft departed Jeddah at 03:49 and arrived back in Kabul at 09:14 local.

A look at ULS Airlines Cargo

A Turkish carrier based at Istanbul Airport, two of ULS' three A310Fs are active, of which one is TC-VEL, shown at the top of this article. They operate on behalf of Turkish Airlines. According to Flightradar24, TC-VEL flew Istanbul-Belgrade-Istanbul-Billund-Istanbul on March 19th.

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On March 20th, TC-VEL departed Istanbul at 02:37 and arrived in Tunis at 03:00 local. It took off from the Tunisian capital at 05:55 and returned to Istanbul at 10:16. It left for Erbil, Iraq, at 11:52, and is expected to return at 17:25.

What was the last A310 you flew? Let us know by commenting.