Today in History: Airbus A340 Maiden Flight 1991

The prototype A340 (a series 200), made its maiden flight on 10/25/1991. The A340-300 entered service in 1993 with launch customers Lufthansa and Air France, followed shortly thereafter by the -200 and A330. With the introduction of higher gross weight Boeing 777s such as the 777-200ER and specifically 777-300ER, sales of the A340 began to decline. Over the last few years the 777 has outsold the A340 by a wide margin. Although the larger GE90 engines on the 777-300ER burn considerably more fuel than the Trent 500s, using only two of them compared to four Trents has meant a typical operating cost advantage of around 8-9%.

In January 2006, Airbus announced plans to develop the A340E (Enhanced). Airbus promoted that the A340E would be more fuel-efficient than earlier A340s and close the 8-9% disparity with the Boeing 777 by using Trent 1500 engines.

Airbus has predicted that it will probably produce 127 A340 units through 2016, after which production will cease.

In mid-2008, with jet fuel prices double those of the year before, the A340's fuel consumption led airlines to curtail very long flights of greater than 15 hours. Thai Airways International cancelled its 17-hour, nonstop Bangkok-New York/JFK route on 1 July 2008. All four of its A340-500 fleet are for sale. While short flights stress aircraft more than long flights, and result in more frequent fuel-thirsty take-offs and landings, ultra-long flights require an airline to fill an aircraft's fuel tanks to the maximum; this means that, en route, the plane is burning a lot of fuel just to carry fuel, a "flying tanker with a few people on board," Air France-KLM SA's chief executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon told the Wall Street Journal.