UA_Flyer

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.

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.

Which airlines ended up buying or leasing those A340 from Boeing?

What were the main reasons for SQ to phase out the A340 in addition to fleet commonality? Performance related or customer satisfaction related?

Why did SQ order A340 in the first place?

Thanks in advance for any information.

StarG

Hmmm.. maybe zvezda is the right person to answer these.
Well, all I know is that Boeing did get all the A343 even the ones still yet to be delivered at that time.
Why did SQ order A340? I would guess because it was the only medium capacity long haul aircraft at the time. They did considered MD-11 and IIRC even placed an order, but eventually cancelled it.

infoworks

Someone fairly high up in SQ at the time told me the original decision to purchase the A340 was "political" so they were quite happy to get rid of them in favour of the 777. The new 340s are different because of their "non-stop" ability, albeit with reduce capacity.

I can't verify what I was told except that person should have been in the know. They are no longer at SQ.

Jubilee777

Thats right. All Celestar are sold to Boeing.

Boeing brought all 17 of them as part of the deal. At that time, there were still 2 in Airbus factory (IIRC)

Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Gulfair, China Airlines and Khalifa (no idea what happend after the airline closed shop)

.
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.

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

UA_Flyer

Jubilee777, Thanks so much for your detailed and informative answers.

rkkwan

You can find information on planemad.net

Of the 17 343, 3 are now with CX, 8 with Emirates, 1 with Ethiad, 4 with Gulf Air, and 1 with CI.

Of the three that originally went to Khalifa, two are with EK and the other is the one Ethiad has.

Keithl

Boeing only 'bought' 2 of SQ's 343 (9V-SJP & 9V-SJQ, which never flew for SQ), these 2 ended with China Airlines (B-18851) and Gulf Air (A4O-LI) respectively.