From the Dulles gate to a featured flight alert

Flightradar24's Sophia and Ian, the company's director of communications, are at Washington Dulles for LH419 to Frankfurt, the very last A340-600 passenger rotation for Lufthansa. There is a party in the terminal, speeches by the crew and a gate area full of people who know exactly what flight they are boarding. More than 600,000 people tracked the inbound aircraft on its way to Dulles, and over 10,000 were still watching as it was towed onto the stand. After boarding and a walk through the long cabin, the 75 metre aircraft makes its last takeoff from runway 30.

Once airborne, Ian fights the onboard Wi-Fi to send a featured flight alert: a curated push message for Flightradar24 app users who tick the featured flights box under alerts, a group that can reach the app's 60 million monthly users. He explains that the most tracked flight list has been full of A340-600s for days, and that the top three most tracked flights at that moment are all eastbound Lufthansa A340-600s. Ian also recalls the early A340-200, jokingly described as powered by hair dryers and built with five APUs, the ultra long range A340-500 that Singapore Airlines flew between Newark and Singapore, and Virgin Atlantic building its brand around four engines for long haul.

History of the A340-600

At more than 75 metres, the A340-600 was the longest airliner in the world when it entered service, until the Boeing 747-8 took that title. The original A340 entered service in 1993 with Lufthansa among its launch customers. The 600 came later alongside the 500, with a larger wing, more powerful Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engines and almost 12 metres of extra fuselage compared with the A340-300. It first flew in 2001, entered service with Virgin Atlantic in 2002, and Lufthansa received its first examples in 2003, eventually operating 24. Only 97 were delivered. The video explains that four engines were an advantage on long oceanic routes until ETOPS rules eased, after which twins like the Boeing 777-300ER could carry similar loads on less fuel. Lufthansa even brought A340-600s back from storage after the pandemic, including their first class seats.

Canarsie approach, interviews and the last landing

As a mid flight bonus, Gabe shares footage from an earlier A340-600 flight on the famous Canarsie approach into New York JFK, from seat 7A and from the cockpit. Ned Russell says his first ever Lufthansa flight was an A340-600 from Hong Kong to Munich in 2009, and flight attendant Fredrik, working in business class, describes passengers bringing candy and farewell gifts for the crew. With a camera mounted in the cockpit, the video follows the final approach and landing in Frankfurt. After landing, the team notes that around 871,000 people followed the flight. Lufthansa still flies the A340-300, the 747 and the A380. The remaining A340-600s are planned to fly to Düsseldorf, where some cabin components will be removed, and then to Teruel in Spain for storage.