Cristina Hodgson
AFTER 24 years of flight, Iberia has stopped using the Airbus A340.
On January 4, the last aircraft of this model that was still at the Madrid hub took off from Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas airport rumbo Ciudad Real, where it will remain stationed for the time being.
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Iberia announced it would stop using the Airbus A340 last August, making way for ‘another giant but much more advanced and efficient, Airbus 350’, a spokesperson for the airline said at the time.
The A340/300 was Airbus’ first four-engine aircraft and the first arrived in Iberia in 1996.
They made their debut on flights to Gran Canaria, then New York, Mexico, Bogota, Sao Paulo and Santo Domingo.
In January 1998, they began flying between Madrid and Santiago de Chile, a 13-hour flight and Iberia’s longest route until it resumed flights from Tokyo in 2016.
The A340/300 was joined by the A340/600 from 2003 onwards.
The A340-600 was the largest-capacity member of Airbus’ A340 Family, with an overall length of 75.36 metres, and a seating capacity between 320 and 370 passengers (or 475 in high-density seating).
The aircraft was used in commercial, corporate or government operations and included state-of-the-art technologies such as weight-saving composite structures and a fuel-saving aerodynamic design.
