The history of Iberia's Airbus A340s and the reasons why they stopped flying

In the 1990s, the European aeronautical company Airbus created an aircraft that promised to be a milestone in its history: the four-engine A340.

The presentation in Spain of the first Airbus A321XLR airliner, operated by Iberia
The history of Iberia's Boeing 747, the largest aircraft of a Spanish operator

The A340 was Airbus's first four-engine aircraft, an aircraft that aspired to compete with the famous Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet on long-distance flights with large numbers of passengers. The A340 is an excellent aircraft that broke several world records. It made its first flight on 25 October 1991 and entered service in March 1993. That same year it achieved two world records in a single non-stop flight between Le Bourget (France) and Auckland (New Zealand), a distance of 19,100 kilometres in a time of 21 hours and 31 minutes.

The Spanish airline Iberia operated 39 A340s, in two versions: 23 A340-300s (20 of them purchased from Airbus and 3 second-hand) and 18 A340-600s. The first A340-300s arrived at Iberia in 1996 and were in service until 2016, a period of only ten years. These aircraft were named after famous women from Spanish history. The first A340-600s arrived at the Spanish airline in 2003, with the last ones remaining in service until 2020. Aircraft of this variant were named after famous musicians, poets and painters.

Airbus officially ceased production of the A340 in 2011, after several years without new orders, although in reality the last A340s came off the assembly line in 2009 (the last two were delivered to Iberia). 380 units were built, a very small number compared to the 1,572 Boeing 747s.

The A340 was a victim of global circumstances, specifically the airline crisis caused by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and, above all, the 2020 pandemic. In addition, the change in ICAO ETOPS standards, allowing longer flights with twin-engine aircraft, and the greater efficiency of aeroengine powertrains, was a cocktail that condemned four-engine aircraft like the A340 to an early decline, which has also ended up affecting giants such as the Boeing 747 and the Airbus A380.

About these four-engine aircraft, today the channel Fly By Wire Aviation (to which I recommend you subscribe if you like topics related to civil and military aviation) has published an interesting video reviewing the history of Iberia's Airbus A340-300 (the video is in Spanish, you can activate automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):

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Main photo: Aero Icarus. The Iberia Airbus A340-313X EC-LKS, named Luisa Carvajal y Mendoza.