Airlines Lufthansa temporarily decommissions A340-600 fleet

Germany´s largest carrier Lufthansa has announced, that it has temporarily removed all Airbus A340-600 aircraft from its fleet.

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Lufthansa has released, that the entire Airbus A340-600 fleet will be temporarily decommissioned in the coming weeks. After the Coronavirus lead to decreased passenger travel, the airline began to ground the majority of its fleet.

Three A340-600s have already been transferred to Teruel in north-eastern Spain, where the aircraft will be parked. Over the next 2-3 months, 14 more of the type will be ferried to the airport. Lufthansa said that the fleet will not be operating within the regular schedules for at least the next year to one and a half year.

In return, this means, that the carrier has not completely written off the usage of its A340-600s. Regarding the aircraft´s future, Lufthansa stated: "A decision on the future use of the aircraft or a possible reactivation of a maximum of ten aircraft will be taken at a later stage in time."

Teruel is a popular choice for European airlines to park their aircraft, as the airport is located between Zaragoza and Valencia where at 240 days of the year the sun shines. Also, the rainfall is very little in the region and the temperatures are good conditions for the aircraft.

Lufthansa´s Airbus A340-600s were all configured with eight first class seats, 44 Business Class seats, 32 Premium Economy seats and 213 Economy seats, meaning the aircraft was able to accommodate 293 passengers on board.

Three of the aircraft were leased from Mitsui Bussan Aerospace and ORIX Aviation and all aircraft were delivered between the end of 2003 and May 2009. Five aircraft were not older than 11 years, but the carrier thought about phasing out the aircraft anyway due to the little poorer operating costs in comparison to the Boeing 777.

During the Coronavirus crisis, Lufthansa and its group airlines decided to ground the majority of their fleet. Carriers like Brussels Airlines and Eurowings suspended all flight operations.

Lufthansa Group is an airline alliance with 11 subsidiary airlines. Together, the group operates from European hubs with 743 aircraft. Mainline carrier Lufthansa normally flies with 300 aircraft, including Airbus A380s and Boeing 747s.

Source © newsroom.lufthansa.com

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