Boeing delivery delays see Lufthansa spare the Airbus A340-600 from retirement
October 30, 2025
Boeing’s delayed delivery of the 777X to launch customer Lufthansa comes with a silver lining: The airline’s quadjet icons – the Airbus A380 and A340 – will be flying for longer.
The Airbus A340-600 had been slated to retire from Lufthansa’s fleet in early 2026, with the airline saying it didn’t expect to see the type on its schedule next summer. Now, at least some of the quadjets will remain in service through summer ’26, with schedules already filed.
For quadjet lovers, the news is extra good as the iconic double-decker Airbus A380 is slated to remain in service for some time to come.
Lufthansa’s 777X delivery delays risk a capacity gap
Boeing confirmed this week that the 777X schedule had slipped again, with the first deliveries now slated for 2027 instead of the expected 2026. Lufthansa was due to be the first airline to take delivery of the type, but the carrier’s pragmatic planning means the implications of the delay will be limited.
“We never expected the airplane to be in operation commercially in 2026, so we are scheduling the aircraft earliest summer 2027,” said CEO Carsten Spohr during the airline’s Q3 earnings call. “There’s no need yet to make any changes to our plans so far, and we’ll see where it goes from here.”
But it’s not just the 777X that is delayed in its arrival. Its Boeing 787 Dreamliner deliveries have seen some impact from the protracted US government shutdown, and the airline no longer expects to receive all 10 that it had planned to take in 2025.
“We don’t expect 10 aircraft anymore this year, but rather probably around 8,” said Spohr. ” We have scheduled to fly six – that’s the minimum which we would need to achieve to not have any changes in our published schedules.”
On the Airbus side, Lufthansa is expecting a swathe of A350s to arrive across the group, with Sphor citing 75 aircraft across the five airlines by the end of the decade. However, short term, the arrivals are slow, with just seven more expected to arrive in 2026.
Lufthansa schedules Airbus A340-600 services for next summer
According to the CEO, any further delays can be ‘bridged’ by keeping its larger legacy aircraft in service. The A340-600, previously expected to be phased out in early 2026, will now fly for the airline next summer, although the exact number to be retained has not been disclosed.
Lufthansa had as many as 24 A340-600s in its fleet over the years, but has been winding down this sub-fleet as it transitions to newer, more efficient aircraft. The fleet was put into storage during the pandemic, and was planned to be retired then, but an uptick in demand meant ten were reactivated.
Since the start of 2025, four of these 10 have been withdrawn, with the most recent leaving in June. Six aircraft remain, aged between 16 and 21 years old.
According to AeroRoutes, Lufthansa has already begun scheduling the A340-600 for next summer operations. Whereas previous schedules saw the type in operation until 11 January only, a new update shows the aircraft will be used on routes to the US through next summer too.
Schedule filings show Lufthansa’s A340-600s flying from Frankfurt to Boston from March to 14 June, 2026, and from Frankfurt to Washington Dulles for the month of June.
Planned services could still change, and could even be extended beyond the end of next June as the airline works out its full summer schedule.
Lufthansa’s Airbus A380 could continue to fly beyond 2030
Adding to the quadjet excitement, Lufthansa’s CEO noted on the call that the Airbus A380 could remain in service “for five years plus,” indicating that he’s not ready to part ways with the superjumbo just yet.
Spohr admitted that the A380 can be hard to fill in the winter season due to the big economy class, but that this huge capacity is a benefit to the airline in the peak travel months. Indeed, the eight remaining A380s in its fleet are undergoing refurbishment this year, including a new business class product, although not the bothersome Allegris.
In 2025, Lufthansa flew its A380 to Denver, marking the first time the airport had seen the A380 on regularly scheduled commercial flights. Clearly the service was a success, as Lufthansa is already planning its return, saying that the superjumbo will be back in DEN from 9 June, 2026.
Despite the current challenges, the airline remains positive about delivery momentum and its long-term fleet renewal plans.
“We have finally reached a point where we take delivery of a new aircraft more or less every week,” CEO Carsten Spohr said on this week’s earnings call. “Out of the total 230 next generation aircraft in our order book, we anticipate more than 50 deliveries until the end of next year.”
Featured image: Brian / Wikimedia
