Lufthansa will end Airbus A340-600 passenger operations on 18 October, with the final scheduled service arriving in Frankfurt the following morning, ending almost 23 years of service for the German airline.
Flight LH419 from Washington Dulles is scheduled to depart at 17:55 local time on Sunday, 18 October, and land in Frankfurt at 07:55 on Monday, 19 October. A Lufthansa spokesperson confirmed the planned final flight to German aviation publication airliners.de. Aircraft assignments and timings remain subject to operational changes.
The airline’s four remaining A340-600s have been operating from Frankfurt to New York JFK and Washington Dulles. These transatlantic services mark the final stage of a withdrawal that has already seen the type disappear from several other long-haul routes.
Lufthansa introduced the A340-600 in 2003 and took delivery of 24 aircraft between 2003 and 2009. The retirement was postponed repeatedly as delays to replacement aircraft, particularly the Boeing 787-9, prolonged the four-engined jet’s operational life. The arrival of additional 787-9s and Airbus A350-900s has since enabled the airline to proceed with its withdrawal.
The final retirement forms part of a broader effort to reduce costs and simplify the group’s fleet. In April, Lufthansa Group announced that its last four A340-600s would leave in October, alongside the temporary grounding of two Boeing 747-400s for the winter. The group cited higher fuel costs and additional financial pressure from industrial disputes as reasons for accelerating its fleet and capacity measures.
The departure of the stretched A340 does not end Lufthansa’s use of four-engined passenger aircraft: the smaller A340-300, Airbus A380 and Boeing 747 remain in its fleet. It does, however, remove one of its most distinctive long-haul types as newer twin-engined aircraft take a growing share of operations.
Sources: airliners.de, newsroom.lufthansagroup.com, Flightradar24 Blog