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Emirates Airline has retired its last Airbus A330 and A340 widebodies from active service, the carrier announced Thursday. The moves make it the only carrier in the world to operate a fleet of all Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s for its passenger flights. The recent retirement of A330 A6-EAK marked the culmination of Emirates’ plan to shed all 29 of its twin-engine Airbuses. The airplane joined Emirates in 2002 and had flown for more than 60,000 hours, traveling some 24 million nautical miles in 14 and a half years. Emirates also recently retired its last A340 quadjet. Manufactured in 1999,...

Airbus halts production of long-haul A340 plane AFP | Nov 10, 2011, 06.07PM IST PARIS: European planemaker Airbus said today it was abandoning production of its A340 long-haul four-engine aircraft, which failed to compete with Boeing's 777. "We have accepted reality. We have not sold any A340s for nearly two years," Airbus finance director Hans Peter Ring said during a presentation on the third-quarter results of Airbus parent company EADS. The abandoning of the programme will allow Airbus to write back into its books a provision of 192 million euros ($261 million) it had made on the programme. The A340...

A NEAR disaster involving an Emirates jet at Melbourne Airport was the result of human error by two apparently alert pilots, air safety investigators believe. The March 20 scare, when an Airbus A340 struggled to get airborne, was caused by an "inadvertent" keystroke on a flight computer. The error meant the Dubai-bound aircraft was flown on the basis that it was carrying 100 tonnes less than it actually was, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said. Its tail hit the runway five times during a botched takeoff. The ATSB's interim report said the first officer "inadvertently inserted a takeoff weight of...

Airlines are considering suing Airbus after the aircraft manufacturer warned them that the front-end of the A340-600 was dangerously overweight, The Times has learnt. The problem is caused by heavier than expected first and business-class areas and airlines have been told to reduce the amount of cargo they carry to rebalance the aircraft. The first and business class sections on some A340600s are so heavy that they are pushing the jet’s nose down during flight, which can play havoc with the aerodynamics and potentially endanger passengers and crew. Flying nose down also increases drag off the wings and forces...

LONDON - Emirates airline has cancelled an order for 10 long-range Airbus A340-600 planes plus the option of 10 more, its president Tim Clark told reporters gathered at Heathrow airport on Friday. Clark said the decision had been taken because the Dubai-based carrier believed the A340 lacked the technology offered by more up-to-date planes. He added that the order had been taken up by a third party.

Emirates CEO Says Airline May Switch A340 Order To A380s Fri, 14 Apr '06 Had Deferred On Orders To Wait For More Efficient Plane It wasn't their first choice... but it's better than nothing. That's the latest word from the chairman of Emirates, who told reporters earlier this week the Dubai-based airline may convert its orders for the slow-selling Airbus A340-600 model (below) to the upcoming A380 superjumbo. As Aero-News reported last month, Emirates initially told Airbus the carrier would defer its orders for the so-called "High Gross Weight" version of the four-engined A340-600, while Airbus took another look at...

Airbus has done it again. On Jan. 17, the European planemaker reported that it booked 1,055 net aircraft orders in 2005, just ahead of the 1,002 logged by Boeing in a record-breaking sales year for both companies.

PARIS (Reuters) - European plane maker Airbus (EAD.PA) is expected to announce record sales and aircraft output for 2005 on Tuesday but could be forced to update the four-engine A340 to fight U.S. rival's Boeing's 777, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The three versions of the Airbus A340 won only 15 orders in the 11 months to November, according to the most recent figures Airbus published, the paper said. The two-engine A330-300 also won 15 orders. But Boeing's (NYSE:BA - news) competing 777 models won 154 orders last year. Airlines say that the 777 is beating the A340...

By David Bowermaster Seattle Times aerospace reporter One of the few perceived weaknesses of the Boeing 777 relative to its Airbus competition could be eliminated if the federal government adopts a proposal made yesterday to extend rules governing long-haul operations of twin-engine jets to three- and four-engine aircraft. Such a policy shift by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would force the four-engine Airbus A340 and the Boeing 747 to meet the same safety requirements as the twin-engine 777. Such a leveling of the regulatory playing field could help Boeing extend the 777's already considerable sales lead over the A340, particularly...