Lufthansa Announces Summer Airbus A380 US Flights & Will Retire Airbus A340-600s By Fall

Lufthansa has announced its schedule for the upcoming summer season, which will begin in March 2025, saying that its Airbus A380 will continue connecting Munich with Boston, New York, Washington, Los Angeles, and Delhi.

At the same time, the airline has confirmed that following the upcoming summer season, its A340-600 aircraft would no longer be flying starting in late October.

A340-600 retirement

According to a statement from a Lufthansa spokesperson, the airline’s current planning does not include the A340-600 operating during the winter flight schedule, which will begin on October 26, 2025.

Data from the aviation analytics company Cirium corroborated the statement. the carrier has no planned A340-600 flights from October 27, 2025, onward, with the data currently only being available up until October 31, 2025, meaning that the type could, in theory, become an active member of the airline’s fleet during the summer season in 2026.

Lufthansa will also gradually reduce the number of weekly itineraries that its A340-600 is scheduled to operate throughout the remainder of 2024 and until October 2025.

For example, while the German carrier has scheduled 86 weekly flights with the type in November and December, it will reduce the number of weekly departures to 66 by January 2025.

Despite a slight uptick in February 2025 and March 2025, with 75 and 88 planned weekly flights, respectively, the schedule will continue to be reduced slowly, and from July 2025, the schedule will remain with 50 weekly flights until its retirement at the end of October 2025.

Ch-aviation data showed that Lufthansa currently has 17 A340-600 in its fleet, with seven aircraft inactive.

The septet of quad-engine widebody jets is stored at Teruel Airport (TEV), one of the largest aircraft graveyards in Europe, where airlines, including Lufthansa, have sent their A380s during the pandemic.

Accelerated phase-out

When Lufthansa Group announced its Q2 results on July 31, the company highlighted operational and financial difficulties at Lufthansa, the airline, with the group ending H1 with a net loss of €265 million ($281.8 million).

As a result, Lufthansa Group announced a transformational program at the carrier, citing adverse market developments in Asia-Pacific, inefficiencies in its flight operations, including Lufthansa CityLine, significant aircraft delivery delays, and growing aviation taxes in Germany.

“Achieving a break-even full-year result is becoming increasingly challenging for Lufthansa Airlines. In addition to short-term measures to safeguard earnings, the airline has launched a comprehensive turnaround program to increase efficiency, reduce complexity, and improve quality, and thereby make the core brand fit for the future.”

One of the key pillars of the program was the retirement of several of its long-haul subfleets, including the A330-200, A340-300, A340-600, and Boeing 747-400, by 2028.

During Q3, which Lufthansa Group ended with a quarterly profit of €1 billion ($1.06 billion) and a nine-month profit of €830 million ($882.5 million), Lufthansa made progress on its turnaround program, which should result in a gross earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) effect of around €1.5 billion ($1.59 billion) by 2026.

A380 stays

At least for the time being, the A380 will remain part of Lufthansa’s operations. During the upcoming summer season, which will begin on March 30, 2025, the type will fly from Munich Airport (MUC) to:

Between November and February 2025, Lufthansa has deployed its A380s from Munich to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), as well as Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) and Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL), with flights to Los Angeles being temporarily suspended in January 2025 and February 2025.

In addition, Discover Airlines will begin flights from Munich to Orlando International Airport (MCO), while Edelweiss Air, a subsidiary of Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS), will start flying between Zurich Airport (ZRH) and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA).

Neither routes were served during the summer season in 2024, with Discover Airlines already having replaced Lufthansa on flights from Frankfurt Airport (FRA) to Orlando International since November 2022, Cirium data showed.