Lufthansa’s four remaining Airbus A340-600s are temporarily gathered at Düsseldorf Airport, creating the appearance of an aviation museum as the airline completes the type’s retirement. Aircraft D-AIHW, D-AIHX, D-AIHY and D-AIHZ are undergoing preparation for storage and component recovery, but are not publicly accessible. The move follows the final scheduled A340-600 passenger flight on 19 October 2026.
D-AIHX and D-AIHY arrived in Düsseldorf on Monday, followed by D-AIHW and D-AIHZ on Tuesday. The aircraft are expected to remain at the airport only briefly while usable spare parts are removed before storage.
Lufthansa’s last scheduled service, flight LH419 from Washington, D.C., landed in Frankfurt on 19 October. Operated by D-AIHW, the eight-hour-five-minute flight carried 267 passengers and 15 crew members. The retirement ended 23 years of A340-600 operations for Lufthansa, which operated 24 aircraft of the type and was among the last airlines to use it in scheduled passenger service.
The four aircraft are planned to fly to Teruel, Spain, between 26 October and 1 November. Their withdrawal forms part of Lufthansa’s broader fleet-modernisation programme, which is replacing four-engine wide-body aircraft with newer, more fuel-efficient types. At 75.30 metres, the A340-600 was the world’s longest passenger aircraft when introduced, and Lufthansa received its first example in November 2003.