Lufthansa schedules over 850 Airbus A340 flights worldwide for October

Starting October 26, which marks the beginning of the northern winter season, Lufthansa will extend its use of the A340 to Canadian routes by temporarily replacing Boeing 787 Dreamliners with these older jets on flights between Frankfurt and Montreal. This makes Lufthansa only the second airline after Tunisair to fly an A340 into Montreal this year. The last time Lufthansa used an A340 for regular service to Montreal was in August 2023; routine operations ended there in October 2022.

Lufthansa continues operating its aging fleet due to delays in receiving new aircraft. The airline has pending orders for several widebodies: 15 Airbus A350-1000s, 13 Airbus A350-900s, 29 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, and 21 Boeing 777-9s. Delivery delays—especially for the Boeing 777X program—and ongoing supply chain issues have slowed fleet renewal plans. According to ch-aviation reports from last year, Lufthansa intends to retire all remaining Airbus A340s by 2028.

Other carriers still flying the Airbus A340 include SWISS—Lufthansa’s subsidiary—which has scheduled around 154 flights with the type from Zurich in October. SWISS operates daily services to Johannesburg and Shanghai as well as three weekly departures to Seoul Incheon; a daily flight to Mumbai will be added at the end of October as part of its transition into winter scheduling. SWISS expects to fully retire its own fleet of A340-300s by mid-2027 as it introduces ten new Airbus A350-900s starting autumn next year.

Outside Europe, South African Airways continues limited operations with its remaining quad jets—22 one-way flights from Johannesburg to Perth and six services to Mauritius are scheduled for October. Venezuelan carrier Conviasa also remains active with about 61 planned monthly departures on various international routes such as Caracas–Havana and Caracas–Cancún.

Lufthansa's continued reliance on older four-engine aircraft highlights ongoing challenges facing legacy carriers as they await delivery of new-generation long-haul jets amid persistent supply chain disruptions.