LH group A340 300s

[nuisance79]

What is the reason for some Airlines preference post pandemic to keep the older A340-300s flying vs the newer A340-600s e.g Lufthansa? I understand they are larger however, with the newer engines on the 600 i would imagine there is not much between each fuel economy wise plus the 600 is a much more dynamic Aircraft.

in some cases (again LH group) the A343 has even been flying instead of newer, similar sized, more economical AC like the A350.

[Hartington]

I wonder if it has something to do with the original financing of the aircraft. Rent/lease an aircraft and you'll be paying for it as long as you have it in the fleet. On the other hand if you buy the plane it goes onto your books and over a period of time you write down the value (to nothing eventually). So now the purchased aircraft has almost no value but your're still paying for the leased plane. Even if the operating cost of the older, less efficient, purchased plane is more than the newer leased plane when you add in the cost of the lease it's cheaper to run the purchased plane because there's no lease cost.

[Peter47]

The A345/6 were arguably Airbuses least successful aircraft, certainly in terms of fuel consumption and A343 may actually be more efficient despite being older. How many A346s are still flying? I can't think of many (but haven't looked very hard). I also can't think of that many A343s flying but the economics may still make sense. The last post mentioned finance costs. The lower financing costs of older aircraft may well offset their higher operating costs. This will be largely depend upon fuel costs - the spike in fuel costs a few years ago lead to the early retirement of many B744. By comparison fuel was very cheap last year. It may make sense to operate an aircraft up to the next D check and then part it out. Also the A343 is a heavier aircraft than the A333 which whilst making it more expensive to operate than the A333 is an advantage when it comes to cargo. (The B748 had relatively poor passenger economics compared with other aircraft but was good for cargo - although I don't claim to be an expert.)

Its interesting that very few if any A388 which with their high passenger and relatively low cargo capacity are flying and most airlines have retired their fuel and maintenance hungry pax B747s (cargo is another issue). Otherwise they are flogging their all cargo aircraft to the limit & making best use of their pax aircraft on cargo flights.

A lessor that has not placed a new aircraft such as an A350 or B787 might have trouble placing it as airlines wish to minimise spend and will avoid capital charges by using existing aircraft - its an interesting area but I'm not a leasing expert.

One other factor is crewing. Although demand is down some cargo flights are flying with heavily augmented crew to avoid having to crew slip where there are quarantine issues and will need to operate the aircraft they have crew for.

[treadigraph]

Looks like around 70 A340s still active, 7 500s and 11 600s amongst them.

[Less Hair]

They are relatively small, fly long range without any ETOPS concerns, are paid off and have pretty standard A320ceo-engines without fancy power by the hour contracts like its bigger cousins.

[Una Due Tfc]

Exactly. They likely have power by the hour contracts in place on the 350s in particular, power by the hour was RR's baby and as such they are more heavily exposed than their rivals in the current climate. The 340s are paid off and nobody else will want them so you don't have to worry about resale value by putting more hours and cycles on them. Lufty do all their maintenance in house so will have different economics to consider, eg keeping their engineering teams current etc.

The A343 isn't that thirsty either in comparison to similar vintage widebodies, and certainly more frugal than the other 4 holers still out there.