zoonil

Hey...

I just got back from the StarMegaDo with a little side trip to Istanbul for four days.

My return flight was MUC - EWR LH 405. This route is usually served by a A330-300.

How come my equipment was a A340-300? not complaining since we got a bigger plane, and some empty seats (I was in coach). But I was curious about this equipment swap - Or do they fly the A340 on certain days of the week - If that is the case, then the next tuesday is back to A330. So that doesn't make sense.

hch

The A340-300 is exactly the same size as the A330-300. Whenever LH is short on the A330 they substitute the A340.

rolov

FYI LH 405 is JFK-FRA
FYI I have been on the EWR MUC flight on both a 346 and a 330.

supermasterphil

MUC-EWR is LH410, return is LH411.

Winter schedule these days is A333 on this route and summer schedule is A346. Both are very nice and my two favorites out of the LH longhoul fleet.

As posted before, A333 and A343 have the same number of seats. A343 just has two additional engines

zoonil

sorry.. got the flight numbers mixed up with my onward flight (LH 405).. Thanks rolov ;-)


My return MUC - EWR was LH 412 which was a A340-300


So if the A330-300 and the A340-3000 have exactly the same number of seats, why would LH or any airline even deploy the A340-300 on routes within the range of a A330-300?

Two extra engines means so much more fuel - I guess the range on the A340-300 is way more than the A333.

NewbieRunner

Airbus A340-300
Length 63.7 m
Wingspan 60.3 m
Height 16.9 m
Cruising Speed 875 km/h
Max. altitude 12,500 m
Max. takeoff weight 271,000 kg
Max. landing weight 190,000 kg
Range* 12,700 km
Cabin width 5.3 m
First/Business/Economy (max)** 8/48/165

* with max. number of bookings
** Configuration may vary

Airbus A330-300
Length 63.7 m
Wingspan 60.3 m
Height 16.9 m
Cruising Speed 875 km/h
Max. altitude 12,500 m
Max. takeoff weight 233,000 kg
Max. landing weight 187,000 kg
Range* 10,000 km
Cabin width 5.3 m
First/Business/Economy (max)** 8/48/165

* with max. number of bookings
** Configuration may vary

alex0683de

Two reasons:

One is the range issue that NewbieRunner quotes. To put those numbers into something we'll be more familiar with:

maximum A333 range: ~10,000km = 6250 miles (MUC-SIN is 6252 miles)
maximum A343 range: ~12,700km = 7937 miles (a little further than MUC-SCL, which LH doesn't fly)

While this looks good in theory, this is maximum range. With lots of payload, unfavourable winds, convoluted ATC routes, holdings due to traffic, a high-altitude departure airport, long taxi times, reserves, etc., the effective range is quite a bit less. The longest route LH currently uses the A333 on is FRA-DFW (5143 miles), which is approaching the limit of what it can do economically while leaving lots of room for Murphy.

Thus, there are quite a few routes where LH really does need the additional range the A343 offers (alternatively, they could have bought A332s, which have a longer range, but they are smaller).

The second issue is the fact that LH doesn't have enough A330s to cover all the routes they could fly them on. However, they do have plenty of A343s, so they might as well put them to good use. LH was among the earliest customers of the A340, and certainly one of the first large customers. Most of their A343s were ordered and delivered when the A333 was not yet available. It costs them less money to fly an aircraft (probably already fully written-off) with a bit more fuel burn than it does to buy and finance an all-new one with a lower fuel burn.

And this doesn't even take into account yet that the only two-engined options that offer the range of the A343 are either smaller (A332) or made by Boeing (777-200ER or -200LR). LH decided against the 777 years ago because they already had A340s in their fleet and didn't want to add yet another aircraft type. Instead, they went with the fleet commonality offered by the Airbus 330/340 to save on maintenance and training costs. Again, the trade-off is between higher fuel burn and lower other costs.

Given their financial performance in the last few years (2009 excepted for obvious reasons), it seems to be working well for them. However, I expect the A343s to start disappearing rather quickly once the A350 arrives.

curt

Well, it depends...

While both the A333 and one version of the A343 are 8/48/165, there are another two A343 configs, namely 44/222 and 8/36/197. Sometimes it makes sense to swap planes if LH needs more Y seats.

hch

The 8/36/197 also exists on some A330 currently, and both types can be refconfigured in very short time

alex0683de

Among some pilots, the difference between the two is said to be that the A333 has two engines and an APU, while the A343 has five APUs.

supermasterphil

Are you rated on the A333/A340?

alex0683de

I wish! No, my current ratings are a bit more modest. But I do have some experience with the A320 due to an MCC course I took and my instructor there was rated on the A300, A320 series, A330 and A340. So he had a certain basis for comparison...