More Lufthansa Airbus A340-600s with First Class return

This is exciting for avgeeks, and reflects just how nice of a recovery we’ve seen for international travel. In the summer of 2021 Lufthansa brought back five Airbus A340s, and now the airline will be bringing back a further five!

Lufthansa will fly A340-600s out of Frankfurt & Munich
Lots of airlines prematurely retired aircraft as a result of the pandemic. In September 2020, Lufthansa revealed that it would retire its fleet of 14 Airbus A380s and 17 Airbus A340-600s. These planes were in long term storage, and it was stated that they’d only be reactivated “in the event of an unexpectedly rapid market recovery.”

In the summer of 2022, Lufthansa reactivated five Airbus A340-600s, all of which have been based in Munich. Initially the plan was that these planes would only fly temporarily, and that they’d be retired after the summer of 2023.

However, Lufthansa has now revealed that it will be bringing back a further five Airbus A340-600s as of the summer of 2023, to be based in Frankfurt. So something tells me that these planes will be sticking around a bit longer than initially planned. All of this is in addition to Lufthansa reactivating Airbus A380s0 as of the summer of 2023, to be based in Munich.

The A340-600 holds a special place in the hearts of many avgeeks. Visually it’s one of the coolest-looking planes — it’s long as heck (it’s longer than the 747-400 and A380), and it has four huge engines. There aren’t many airlines flying the A340-600 anymore, so this is quite a rare plane.

Why Lufthansa is bringing back the A340-600s
Initially Lufthansa made the decision to reactivate five Airbus A340-600s due to “growing premium demand, for both business as well as leisure travel.” This was clearly done so that Lufthansa could strengthen its premium product out of Munich, and offer first class.

The reason this temporary solution was needed was because prior to that, Lufthansa’s only planes with first class were Boeing 747-8s, and they’re based in Frankfurt. In late summer 2023, Lufthansa plans to take delivery of some A350s with first class, which will be based in Munich.

In other words, without reactivating the A340-600s, Lufthansa wouldn’t currently be able to offer first class out of Munich until the end of the summer of 2023. But now between the A340-600s and A380s being brought back, Lufthansa will again have a considerable first class presence in Munich, even before the A350s arrive.

With Lufthansa now reactivating its A340-600s out of Frankfurt, I think this mostly just comes down to the airline hoping to increase overall capacity, given the recovery in demand we’ve seen. While A340-600s have high operating costs, they can carry a lot of cargo and passengers, and presumably the fixed costs are quite low.

Which Lufthansa routes feature the A340-600?
In which markets should you expect to find the Lufthansa Airbus A340-600? Out of Munich, Lufthansa is flying the plane to the following destinations:

Boston (BOS) — on an ongoing basis
Chicago (ORD) — as of March 25, 2023
Hong Kong (HKG) — as of March 26, 2023
Miami (MIA) — on an ongoing basis
New York (JFK) — on an ongoing basis
Washington (IAD) — as of April 17, 2023
Out of Frankfurt, Lufthansa will fly the plane to the following destinations:

Bogota (BOG) — as of June 6, 2023
Hong Kong (HKG) — as of March 26, 2023
New York (JFK) — as of March 28, 2023

Bottom line
Lufthansa is continuing to put more Airbus A340-600s into service, which is exciting news. By the summer of 2023, we should see 10 A340-600s flying once again, out of both Frankfurt and Munich. While these aren’t the most modern planes in Lufthansa’s fleet, they feature first class, and it’s generally a fun plane for avgeeks.

It’s nice to see the extent to which international travel demand is recovering, as Lufthansa is reactivating a second bath of A340s.

What do you make of Lufthansa’s decision to reactivate more A340-600s?