This past month, the A340-500 was used by just one airline:
Azerbaijan Airlines from Baku to Moscow Domo’de’dovo. With the aircraft’s retirement from
this route, there are currently no more scheduled routes being flown by the aircraft. The type has
never been popular because of its niche role, and it is now all but extinct in a commercial sense.
For most of this month, the A340-500 was the world’s least-used passenger widebody still
in commercial service. This was the result of only one remaining active aircraft. Registered 4
Kilo-Alpha Zulu 85, and was operated by Azal Azerbaijan Airlines. A second jet,
4 kilo-alpha zulu 86, is parked. Azal had been deploying the sole
remaining active A340-500 on just the one route from Baku to Moscow Domodedovo.
Operating twice-weekly, the A340 was recently retired, replaced by the B767-300ER.
The 767 will then be replaced by the A320ceo. 4 Kilo-Alpha Zulu 85 had been operating Azal
flight J2181 bound to Domodedovo. The 1,172-mile route has an actual flight
time of around two hours and 45 minutes out and about two-and-a-half back.The A340-500 entered
service 18 years ago in 2003. The purpose was clear and logical: to have the longest flight
envelope of any widebody commercial aircraft. At the time, its four engines were key, allowing
exemption from restrictive ETOPS legislation. This all meant one thing, at least in theory:
new ultra-long-haul routes could be operated non-stop. Singapore Airlines led the way,
with services between Singapore and Los Angeles and Singapore to Newark in 2004.
Yet the A340-500 has never been a popular aircraft. This is because of its very niche role,
which meant that demand for the type was minimal. Ultra long haul trips are enormously hard to make
work in the best times with low fuel prices and a strong economy. Using a gas-guzzling
four-engine aircraft, whose performance was in serious doubt, presents even more challenges.
Shortly after the A340-500, a more cost-efficient, ultra-long-haul twin – the 777-200LR –
came about. This effectively ended the A340-500 program for commercial airlines. Its role since
then has become even more niche.Even in 2011, the A340-500 had just a 0.52% share of all widebody
seats globally. Analyzing OAG data reveals, that this has shrunk to just 0.01% in 2019.
And now, in 2021, it had barely 3,000 seats by the type – all by Azal on this one route.
The A340-500 has had just 12.9 million scheduled seats since 2011
across six main airlines, as you can see here.
In addition, a raft of other carriers used the aircraft on a short-term basis with wet-lease
operator HiFly. These include Norwegian, SAS, TAP Air Portugal, El Al, and Finnair.
The latter used it from Helsinki to New York JFK. Norwegian, meanwhile, used it in two years: 2016
and 2018. In 2016, the type was used on routes from Helsinki, including Athens, Nice, Paris Orly,
and Rome Fiumicino. Two years later, it was used from Barcelona to both Newark and Oakland.
As the A340-500’s commercial service comes to an end, do you have any memories of the type?
Doha-based Qatar Airlines never flew the -500, although it did operate the A340-600.
Nonetheless, we do have some exciting news to share with you about the airline...