Auf wiedersehen to Lufthansa's A300s

The last Lufthansa Airbus A300 flight flew earlier today, as the culmination of the airline's plans to phase out the 26-strong fleet. Lufthansa flight 3853, operated by aircraft D-AIAM, left Rome and arrived in Frankfurt shortly past 9:00am local time. The A300s have been a key part of Lufthansa's 'continental' fleet since 1987, and the airline used them extensively on inter-European routes. But the A300s got the axe as part of a cost-cutting plan that Lufthansa has implemented, which is expected to save €300 million ($420 million).

American Airlines, another big A300 operator, is also expected to retire the last of its A300s this year on August 24th. Those of you who have yet to fly on an A300 (myself included) might want to look at booking tickets before it's too late...

photo by eigjb on Flickr

American to retire A300

photo by Vidiot

American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey said earlier today that the airline's fleet of Airbus A300s, which were due to be retired by the end of 2012, will instead be phased out by the end of 2009. Right now, the type is based at either JFK or Miami (there still is a significant AA A300 presence in San Juan, but this has declined as AA has started to downsize operations there slightly) and flies mainly on routes to and from the Caribbean. The A300 is also a pretty versatile aircraft - it's used on AA's Miami - Orlando route three times a day.

It's unclear as to what American will replace the A300 with, but they might not choose to replace it at all. Instead of going for higher capacity, AA might just choose to have higher fares for fewer seats.

Last A300 delivered

"I'm the youngest member of the eldest Airbus family." Picture from Airliners.net

The last ever Airbus A300 was delivered today to FedEx, making a total of 821 Airbus A300s and A310s ordered. The A300 was launched in May 1969, with the first airplane entering commercial service with Air France in May 1974. It was the first wide-body, twin-engine aircraft, and it led to the creation of the A310, which was launched in July 1978 and first flew in April 1983 with Swissair and Lufthansa. FedEx is, according to Airbus, the largest customer for the A300/A310, with more than 120 of the types currently in service. Airbus expects that half of the current fleet of 630 A300/A310s will still be in service beyond the year 2025.

Airbus has also released a short video about the A300.