First Airbus A340 being sent to the scrap heap
The first scrapping of a new-generation Airbus widebody is looming, with a 13-year-old ex-Virgin Atlantic A340-300 expected to be broken for spares.
The A340 (MSN 0016), which is managed by lessor AerCap, was ferried from Hamburg to the company’s storage facility at Phoenix Goodyear airport in July. Although AerCap says that “the decision hasn’t been made” whether to part out the A340, industry sources say that the aircraft is set to come under the breaker’s axe.
According to Flight’s ACAS database, MSN 0016 was delivered new to Virgin Atlantic in January 1994 on lease from Airbus, and acquired by AerCap (then called Debis AirFinance) in 2000.
The aircraft was placed with BWIA West Indies Airways in 2004 and returned off lease in January this year after BWIA closed and was replaced by Caribbean Airlines.
In 1997 while operating with Virgin, the A340 was involved in a major incident at London Heathrow, when it made an emergency landing with one of its main landing-gear bogies retracted.
Although the A340 is an early-build example, its utilisation is not among the highest in the A340 fleet. According to ACAS, MSN 0016 has accumulated 55,309h and 7,148 cycles, which is around 10,000h and 6,500 cycles below the A340 fleet leader in each criterion.
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