Airliners-India.com

747-237

http://ch-aviation.ch/portal/news/22064-emirates-begins-a340-500-phase-out

Emirates begins A340-500 phase out

27SEP2013

Emirates has withdrawn two of its ten A340-500s from service with one now being broken up for spare parts, FlightGlobal reports. According to airline president, Tim Clark, the move is a big, if necessary, move given the high cost of fuel the world-over. “We’ve taken a big hit to retire them, but [their poor economics means] there’s no point in flying them,” he said. Emirates intends to accelerate the retirement of its remaining A340-500 fleet with the primary objective being to sell them on to other willing buyers. However, should that fail, then they will be scrapped. The aircraft were bought from Airbus Industrie in 2004 to service Emirates' long-hual flights to the West Coast of the US and to eastern Australia. Other operators of the type include Singapore Airlines, Etihad Airways, AZAL Azerbaijan Airlines, Hi Fly, Kuwait Airways, Forces Aériennes Algériennes and Qatar Airways Amiri Flight.

------------------------------------

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/emirates-begins-parting-out-its-a340-500s-390832/

Emirates begins parting out its A340-500s

Emirates has retired two of its 10 Airbus A340-500s, and is breaking one for spares, as sustained high fuel prices take their toll on operations of the four-engined aircraft.

The Dubai network carrier introduced the ultra-long range airliner in 2003, meaning that its oldest aircraft is only 10 years old. But the high cost of fuel makes the aircraft uneconomic to fly now, says Emirates Airline president Tim Clark.

“We’ve taken a big hit to retire them, but [their poor economics means] there’s no point in flying them,” says Clark. “They were designed in the late 1990s with fuel at $25-30. They fell over at $60 and at $120 they haven’t got a hope in hell.”

Clark says that Emirates is looking to accelerate the phase-out of its remaining eight A340-500s, and if it cannot find any buyers, “they’re going to the knacker’s yard”.

One A340-500 has been ferried to Ras al-Khaimah for parting out, while a second is stored in Dubai, where it may be retained as a back-up aircraft. “I’m thinking about that,” says Clark, who adds that Emirates has “zeroed” the aircraft’s book value.

Emirates will use spares removed from the first aircraft to support the remaining eight in service.

The Rolls-Royce Trent 500-powered airliner nominally seats 313 passengers and is a short-fuselage, ultra-long-range derivative of the A340-600. Emirates operates its A340-500s in a 258-seat layout.

With its 9,000nm (16,650km) range, the -500 was at service entry touted by Airbus as the world’s longest-range airliner, which was behind Emirates’ decision to order it.

“When we bought it, it was the only aeroplane that could fly nonstop to the west coast of the USA or the east coast of Australia,” says Clark. “Unfortunately for Airbus, nobody foresaw fuel doing what it did.”

Airbus delivered a total of 32 A340-500s between 2003 and 2010. Emirates has been the largest operator, taking delivery of 10. Other operators have included Arik Air, Etihad, Singapore Airlines, TAM and Thai Airways, while several A340-500s are operated as government transports.

_________________
11000 posts (and counting) on Airliners-India.

sabya99 · Posted: Sun Sep 29, 2013 6:29 am Post subject:

Airbus 340 also ushered the ultra long distance flight between north America and south east Asian transit hubs like Hong Kong, Singapore and Bang Kok All these were trans polar flights and without A340 the flight would not have been possible. This four engine aircraft has left its mark in aviation history and it will not be forgotten.
_________________
Sabya99

The_Goat · Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2013 12:11 am Post subject:

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

The_Goat · Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2013 1:35 am Post subject:

Aseem · Member Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 2841 Location: YYZ

Sad but not surprising. Expect EK to jettison old planes as they have their A350 coming.

Have been fortunate to have travelled on AC's A345 DEL-YYZ. One of the most proportionate planes will surely be missed.

Also, A340 series has had its fare share of success. They came in when Boeing's answer was B767. It helped those routes immensely where there wasn't enough capacity to fill B747. We should give this bird a fair share of credit.

VT-ASJ
_________________
[url=http://openflights.org/user/aseemsjohri]

[/url]

sabya99 · Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2013 2:54 am Post subject:

If I remember correctly, SIN-SFX transpolar flight was offered only in a A340-xxx, all business class configuration. B747SP was too big to fill up. Even Thai Airlines used A340 for Bang Kok – LAX sector for some time. But advent of high bypass large diameter engines made four engine aircrafts obsolete. But there was no problem with the airframe. Perhaps Airbus should have thought of converting a four engine aircraft to two engine one long ago.
_________________
Sabya99

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2013 10:09 am Post subject:

You'll be hard pressed to label the entire A340 family as an out and out failure, with over 350 frames built, it isn't.

And when you couple the A330 with it (they're from the same line after all), it most certainly isn't.

Both the 747SP and the A340-500 in specific were victims of periods of high fuel prices of the day - the former during the turbulent 70s (recall the 1973 and the 1979 oil shocks), and the latter during the first decade of the 2000s.
_________________
Yeah.

Aseem · Member Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 2841 Location: YYZ

The_Goat · Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 12:13 pm Post subject:

Aseem · Member Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 2841 Location: YYZ

Talking about A340-200, which is pretty much A330-300 with two more engines. How does adding two more engines increase the range? Common sense would say adding extra fuel capacity would increase range. Of is it that engines can take only certain amount of load at a stretch, and that necessitates 4 engines 4 long-haul?

VT-ASJ
_________________
[url=http://openflights.org/user/aseemsjohri]

[/url]

sabya99 · Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2013 4:29 am Post subject:

The_Goat · Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2013 1:18 pm Post subject:

Aseem · Member Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 2841 Location: YYZ

...carrying forward your analysis, A340 lost its utility to A330 as one-stop flights remained popular. The extra fuel carried and burnt further pinched the bottom lines.

VT-ASJ
_________________
[url=http://openflights.org/user/aseemsjohri]

[/url]

avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

EK has halted all it's aircraft retirement until further notice. The A345s will remain in the fleet. The A343s MAY go.

Nimish · Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 1:14 pm Post subject:

avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

No aircraft delays per se, but thism ove is more to expand faster to combat competition.

Our A380 to LAX was a pre emptive move to EY launching LAX. Similarly the A380 will go to IAH in Summer 2014 as well.

Nimish · Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 6:21 pm Post subject:

stealthpilot · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB

avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031