Summary

• Lufthansa has a fleet of 17 active Airbus A340-300 aircraft, making it the largest operator of this model globally.
• The A340-300 fleet is primarily used for flights from Frankfurt to 14 destinations worldwide, with the United States being a key focus.
• Lufthansa operates 188 weekly flights on the A340-300, offering a total of 52,452 seats, compared to 96 weekly flights and 29,976 seats on the A340-600.

Lufthansa's first Airbus A340-300 was delivered in November 1993, three decades ago. More followed that year, and the last arrived in 2001. The German carrier also received several A340-600s throughout its history, and while these are younger (17.7 years on average for the -600s versus 24.1 years for the -300s), the -300s have way more flights.

Using data from Cirium, Lufthansa is currently scheduling 188 weekly flights onboard the A340-300, offering 52,452 seats as of October 2023, versus 96 weekly flights and 29,976 seats on the A340-600. Let’s see where the quadjet is flying this week.

A brief look at Lufthansa's A340-300s

According to ch-aviation, Lufthansa has 17 A340-300s, of which 16 are active. Only D-AIGT is currently under maintenance. The company also has 17 A340-600s, but of these bunch, nine are currently inactive.

All 17 Airbus A340-300 aircraft are company-owned, ch-aviation shows, with some aircraft having twice as many premium seats as others, helping with varied route deployment. However, most have only about 13% of seats in business or premium economy, well suited to most of the leisure or otherwise lower-yielding routes operated.

Per SeatGuru, Layout 1 has a capacity for 279 passengers, with 30 in business, 28 in premium economy, and 221 in economy. Layout 2 can carry 251 passengers (42 in business, 28 in premium economy, and 181 in economy. Finally, Layout 3 can handle 298 passengers, with 18 in business, 19 in premium economy, and 261 in economy.

Lufthansa is the largest operator of the Airbus A340-300 globally. Other companies still flying the model include Mahan Air (six in total), Edelweiss Air (five), and SWISS (four). Despite that, Mahan Air seems to have the most A340-300 flights scheduled per week this month (299 weekly services, according to Cirium).

Lufthansa has 188 A340-300 flights from Germany weekly as of October 2023, based on analyzing schedules available from data experts Cirium.

All of Lufthansa’s A340-300 flights depart from Frankfurt and reach 14 destinations globally. There are between 13 and 14 A340-300 Lufthansa departures each day from Frankfurt (FRA).

Tip: For a more complete analysis of Lufthansa’s entire Airbus A340 fleet (both -600s and -300s), check out this article.

Where are they flying?

Lufthansa is employing its Airbus A340-300 fleet to reach seven destinations in the United States, totaling 47 weekly departures to cities in this country, which seems critical for the company. The German company serves Boston (BOS), Washington Dulles (IAD), New York John F. Kennedy (JFK), Los Angeles (LAX), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), and Seattle (SEA) with this quadjet.

Boston and New York have 11 weekly flights with Lufthansa’s A340-300. Washington and Chicago have seven, while Los Angeles has six and Seattle has five.

The remaining 47 weekly departures from Lufthansa reach eight destinations elsewhere. Three are in Africa, one in Latin America, two in India, one in China, and one in Iran, per Cirium.

Lufthansa serves Abuja (ABV) and Lagos (LOS, in Nigeria), Mumbai (BOM) and Chennai (MAA in India), Cape Town (CPT, South Africa), Teheran (IKA, Iran), Beijing (PEK, China), and San José (SJO, Costa Rica).

The German company flies daily to Abuja, Mumbai, Tehran, Chennai, and Beijing, employing the A340-300. It also has six weekly flights with this aircraft to Cape Town and thrice weekly to Lagos and San José.

What are your experiences of Lufthansa's A340-300s? Share them in the comments.

Source: Cirium, ch-aviation.