Dulles International Airport said goodbye Sunday evening (Oct. 18) to an aircraft type the local region is unlikely to see again.
Lufthansa Flight 419 to Frankfurt-Main Airport in Germany marked the carrier’s official retirement of its small remaining fleet of 281-passenger Airbus A340-600 aircraft.
“The A340-600 is leaving, and in its place come aircraft of the latest design: quieter, more efficient and more comfortable. We expect the Airbus A350-1000 and further Boeing 787s very soon, and the Boeing 777-9 next year,” said Francesco Sciortino, a Lufthansa Airlines’ board member and manager of its Frankfurt hub.
A veteran pilot for the airline, Sciortino was captain of the final flight, which closed the books on an airline type that had served 40 million Lufthansa passengers over the past 23 years without any accidents.
Scheduled to depart Dulles Sunday evening at 5:55 p.m. for the 4,100-mile flight, the aircraft arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, yesterday (Monday) morning, approximately eight hours and five minutes later, Lufthansa said in a press release. Flight LH419 carried 267 passengers and 15 crew members on board.
For much of Sunday evening into Monday morning, three Lufthansa A340-600s were traveling from the U.S. back to Germany, according to Flight Aware. Flight 419 was joined by Flight 417, which had departed Dulles several hours earlier, and Flight 401, the last Lufthansa A340-600 service from John F. Kennedy International Airport.
At 247 feet and 5 inches, the 600s represent the most stretched version of the A340 model, and until the Boeing 747-8 models entered service, they were the world’s longest passenger aircraft.
The first A340-600 was delivered to Lufthansa on Nov. 25, 2003 and was christened “Bremerhaven” a year later. The airline ultimately operated two dozen A340-600s over the next two decades.
“The A340-600 is such a distinctive looking plane, given how it’s so long and thin, and has four huge engines,” Ben Schlappig wrote on the site.
The aircraft are characterized by four powerful Rolls-Royce Trent 556 engines and a unique quirk: Lavatories are located in the center of the aircraft, below the main deck.
Lufthansa’s 281-seat A340-600 versions were configured into four sections, with eight seats in first class, 56 in business class, 28 in premium economy and 189 in economy.
Its four powerful engines were gas-guzzlers; the twin-engine A350-1000 that is replacing the A340-600 will deliver 25% to 40% more fuel efficiency, according to estimates.
Among other achievements, Lufthansa says its A340-600s were used for climate research and to shepherd the German national football team to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where it ultimately won the title over the home country’s team. The aircraft was also the first to return to D.C. in March 2022 after flights were grounded during the initial years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the general traveling public, many of whom can’t differentiate between Boeing versus Airbus aircraft, let alone individual types, the departure of Lufthansa’s A340-600s from the scene is likely of little importance.
But for airline, airport and aircraft aficionados, it marked a sad day.
“Most of us will likely never fly an Airbus A340-600 again, so it’s truly the end of an era,” Schlappig wrote. “At this point, the only airlines operating regularly scheduled flights with these beauties are Venezuela’s Conviasa and Iran’s Mahan Air.”
A German-based charter operator, USC, also has the aircraft in its fleet. One of its flights was in the air in Central America, while the three Lufthansa flights were traveling to Europe, according to FlightAware.
A respondent to Schlappig’s preview article wrote that the Lufthansa flights were likely to be filled with those wanting to get a final ride in on the aircraft type.
“Aviation geeks are really driving the fares insane for both flights,” he wrote.
According to Lufthansa, many of the passengers on board Flight LH419 had indeed “bought tickets specially to take part” in the historic flight. They all received a specially produced farewell book as a gift.
When the flight landed in Frankfurt, those on board “gave a long round of applause,” and a number of “spotters and influencers” were present to greet them, the airline says.
Lufthansa is the sixth largest carrier at Dulles, carrying 56,400 travelers in July, the latest month for which statistics have been posted by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
Its passenger total represents about 2% of total travel at Dulles, on par with American Airlines at 2.1%.
According to Lufthansa, the retirement of the A340-600 is part of the largest fleet modernization effort in its history:
In addition to the A340-600, the Airbus A340-300, the Airbus A330-200 and the Boeing 747-400 will also be retired by 2027. They will be replaced by state-of-the-art Airbus A350-1000 and Boeing 777-9 aircraft. According to the manufacturers, these aircraft are quieter, consume 30 percent less kerosene and produce correspondingly lower emissions. Eighteen Boeing 787-9 aircraft are already in service, and a further 11 aircraft of this type will be delivered by 2027.
By 2028, 70 percent of Lufthansa’s long-haul fleet is expected to consist of next-generation aircraft, an important lever for greater efficiency and comfort. Fewer aircraft types also mean less complexity in maintenance, planning and training, and therefore a more economically sound basis for the future.
