Why do airlines in USA not have the A340, and why do Lufthansa not have the B777?

Answer 1

short answer, the airlines decide which planes to buy, and the airlines in question chose not buy certain planes. it has to do it part with where they're flying. 747s are better than 777s for transatlantic flight (supposedly), and europeans use trains far more than americans, so european airlines don't necessarily need planes as large as the 777. as for the A340, boeing is an american company, and airlines in america often prefer boeings over comparable airbuses

Answer 2

Apparently the A340 that Lufthansa uses more is the A343 (A340-300) which runs 4 CFM56's apparently it would cost less to fly four CFM56's domestically or in a short range international and it makes more profit than a Trent 800 or GE90 on such short routes, apparently, same works for some long range international routes too. Also, since the Airbus A340, can seat more people than a 777 and apparently Lufthansa seats more people than usual, therefore it makes more profit than a 777. However the reason why American carriers do not use the A340, is apparently because NOBODY WOULD FLY AN AMERICAN CARRIER internationally, because there are better airlines to fly out of the country, and since four engined airliners are relativley bigger than twin-engined airliners and since nobody flies, there are no seats being sold and prices go up chasing customers away, and therefore costing the airline money. Therefore, American carriers have to rely on the 777/767, A330, and A300 because you fill a smaller plane with fewer people therefore maintaing a profit.

Answer 3

The A-340 is a long range airliner. U.S. carriers have little use for it on domestic routes. With the introduction of higher gross weight Boeing 777s such as the 777-200ER and specifically 777-300ER, sales of the A340 began to decline. Over the last few years the 777 has outsold the A340 by a wide margin. Although the GE90 engines on the 777-300ER burn considerably more fuel than the Trent 500s, using only two of them compared to four Trents has meant a typical operating cost advantage of around 8-10%.
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Luthansa operates nearly 50 A-340s and chances are they are of various ages. They have a large Airbus fleet and any pilot that can fly the A-330 can also fly the A-340. This comes in handy for an airline the size and importance of Luftansa.

Answer 4

No US airline (save Northwest) operates four engined airliners since they are more expensive and unnecessary with ETOPS approvals.

I don't know why Lufthansa doesn't operate the 777 but it certainly isn't because it's American (remember that Lufthansa was the original launch customer for the 737 and has operated almost every other Boeing product).

Saying that Airbus is European and Boeing is American is quite inaccurate. Major components for both of these airliners are manufactured all over the world. A 777 with Rolls Royce engines can't have much less foreign content than an A340 with GE engines

Answer 5

Every different plane an airline has increases the complications of maintainance and scheduling. Once a company has started buying a line like Airbus or the Boeing, it is more likely to stick with the line unless there is some overwhelming advantage since test equipment, mechanics skills, and parts are often the same. Some of the airlines having the most problems are those that resulted from mergers where they have a mix of Boeing, McDonald-Douglas, Airbus, etc. and must maintain them all.

Answer 6

Not sure about Boeing but on Airbus aircrafts like the A330, A340 and A380, pilots can fly all three types if he has ratings on them cus of the Airbus cockpit commonality philosophy, in which Airbus cockpits across the entire product range are very similar.

Answer 7

A340- because it is a slow, gas guzzling, maintenance hog.

Lufthansa did buy the 747-8. They prefer 4 engines for long trips.

Answer 8

I do not believe right now there is even a 4 engine jet flying
pax in the us right now, so the a-340 would be a waist even though its a nice looker,,,

I know luftansa has the 744,s and i thought they had an order of the 787... it just depends on the airlines needs and times ...

Answer 9

Airlines decide what aircraft best fit their operation and go from there, like trying to figure out which car to buy. The reality is US airlines tend buy American and European airlines favor European made Airbus.

Answer 10

Cuz the US airlines told Airbus to keep their crappy planes......