Virgin Atlantic look towards ending A340-300 operations

It seems that the writing is on the wall for Virgin Atlantic’s A340-300 fleet, with AirlineRoute noting that the final service has been scheduled in.

Virgin Atlantic A340-300 By Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons) – Sadly, I don’t have an A340-300 in my photo library that’s accessible. I do have an A340-600, but that wouldn’t do for the launch picture…

The A340-300’s final bow will be on the 29th March, operating the Shanghai Pu Dong to London Heathrow service (subject to changes and reroutes)

Plans did exist for A340-300s to operate between London Heathrow and Johannesburg during the Summer 2015 season – but these have been replaced with an Airbus A340-600.

The A340-300 has been used extensively by Virgin Atlantic as it grew – introduced to 1993 to the fleet – , but the cardre of A340-300s  has been diminishing in recent years as more efficient twin-jet aircraft are entering service in the Virgin Atlantic fleet (the A330 and the Boeing 787-9).

The current operational A340-300 fleet stands at two aircraft in the fleet.

Virgin Atlantic will continue to operate the larger A340-600 in it’s fleet for a while yet, with 13 of them in the long-haul feet.

Virgin Atlantic Airbus A340-600 taxing at Heathrow, Image – Economy Class and Beyond.

Time does move on sadly, and for these smaller quad-jet aircraft – they’re swallowing fuel and costing money to operate.

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