What happened to the SQ 340-300E Celestar? I know Boeing bought them from SQ as part of the deal to sell 777-200ER to SQ.
Thats right. All Celestar are sold to Boeing.
How many did Boeing end up buying? If I am not mistaken a few were still on order at the time of the Boeing transaction, so they went straight from Airbus to Boeing.
Boeing brought all 17 of them as part of the deal. At that time, there were still 2 in Airbus factory (IIRC)
Which airlines ended up buying or leasing those A340 from Boeing?
Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Gulfair, China Airlines and Khalifa (no idea what happend after the airline closed shop)
What were the main reasons for SQ to phase out the A340 in addition to fleet commonality? Performance related or customer satisfaction related
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Heard is more performance related. Rate of climb is a lot slower, and also the cruise speed means arriving at destinations slower than other plane types.
Why did SQ order A340 in the first place?
SQ wanted a replacement aircraft for its SIN-CDG route as the B744 was oversized (in 1992). SQ initially signed LOI for the MD11. However, MD11 did not meet SQ's expectations, so SQ dropped it and went for the A340-300X, which will carry the same number of paxs as the A342 with better range.
Cheerios