Over recent years, airlines have reassessed their fleets due to the downturn in international travel caused by the pandemic. This has led to some carriers retiring specific aircraft types, including the Airbus A340. The quad-engine jet was often criticized for its low power and sold poorly. However, some major international carriers utilized A340s on routes to busy airports like New York's JFK.
Currently, Lufthansa is the only airline operating A340 flights from New York-JFK. Since September 2024, when Air Senegal ceased its A340 operations at JFK, Lufthansa has been flying either the A340-300 or A340-600 from Frankfurt Airport to New York-JFK. Between October 2024 and June 2026, Lufthansa's schedule will vary between five weekly flights and daily connections with the A340.
Before the pandemic halted most international travel in January 2020, six routes from JFK were operated by A340s from airlines such as Iberia, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, South African Airways, and Virgin Atlantic. In total, these operators scheduled 26 weekly departures with the A340 from JFK.