LAX aircraft spotters' guide: Airbus A340-600

A recent comment included the following question: "Does any carrier fly an A340-600 into LAX?" Why yes, they do. Three carriers bring in a total of four A340-600s each day at LAX.

On its website, Airbus touts the A340-600 as the longest airliner in operation (although the new Boeing 747-8 now beats it at 250 feet long). With a length of 247 feet (75.3 meters) and a wingspan of 208 feet (63.5 meters), its size presents some difficulties at LAX. I've mentioned A346s and the challenges they represent at LAX before, so I'll let that go except to say that thankfully we only get four of them each day. The A346 has a range of 7,900 miles (14,600 km) and a maximum passenger capacity of 475, although a more typical seating configuration would be about 380. Each of the carriers using A346s at LAX has a different seating capacity, and all are considerably less than the advertised maximum. According to Wikipedia, Airbus has recently wrapped up the A340 program as all ordered aircraft have been delivered. The reported 2011 price for a new A340-600 was $275 million or €190 million.


The first A340-600 we see each day arrives from Shanghai, China. China Eastern was the first Chinese airline to purchase Airbuses, and has five A346s, which are configured for 322 passengers. The flight from Shanghai takes ten to eleven hours, while the return trip is about fourteen hours.

With a Skywest E120 Brasilia and a Delta (former Northwest) B747-400

With an American B767-300

From the archives: With an Air France A340-300 (Air France no longer brings A340s into LAX). The A343 is a relatively poor performer in the terminal environment; it's a real dog on climb-out. Not so the A346; notice the much larger engine cowlings on the -600.

China Eastern in SkyTeam colors

With a pair of B737s: Above, a Southwest -700; Below, an Alaska -800

Virgin Atlantic operates two A340-600s into LAX each day from London's Heathrow airport. Virgin's A346s carry 308 passengers, and Virgin has currently has nineteen of them, although there are plans to reduce that number. Used Airbus, anyone?

From the archives: With a Northwest B757-200

With a LAN B767-300

Sandwiching in-between a pair of B777-300s, with a CRJ9 waiting to get in

Almost the same scenario, except with the new paint on Virgin (and old on Air France) and New Zealand is in a B747-400

Our final A340-600 arrives after an eleven-hour flight from Munich, Germany. Lufthansa is the only carrier offering direct service between LAX and Munich. Lufthansa has two dozen A346s, each with a seating capacity of 306.

With a British Airways B747-400

References:

Airbus Industries A340-600

Wikipedia: Airbus A340

China Eastern Fleet Information A340-600

Wikipedia: China Eastern Airlines

Lufthansa Fleet A340-600

Wikipedia: Lufthansa

Virgin Atlantic Our Fleet

Wikipedia: Virgin Atlantic

I never get tired of this

You just gotta love the view from the tower!

Looking out east at the finals: Landing all four runways; all those "stars" are airplanes

Buncha Heavy Jets

When I arrived at the tower yesterday, several of my coworkers pointed out the Air New Zealand B777 parked at Terminal 2. I've shown you an A320 or two with this paint, but I didn't know we were going to get to see it on anything else. While I waited in vain for the aircraft to push off the gate, the opportunity for this group photo of four B777s (and an A346) arose. New Zealand ended up not pushing until after dark, so I'm glad I at least got this shot. In the meantime, this happened:



Gratuitous heavy jet photo:

Our new taxiways

Not quite a year ago, LAX got a brand-new taxiway: Romeo, which runs North-South past several of the maintenance ramps west of the terminal complex. At about the same time we got Romeo, we lost Quebec and later Sierra, which also ran North-South, but along the west side of the International Terminal. Quebec is gone forever, lost to the remodeling of the TBIT, but the relocated Sierra opened up last month, somewhat west of its original location. Here are a couple of aerial photos of our new taxiways. The opening photo is shot from the Southeast; that's Terminal 4 in the foreground. The thing that looks like a checkerboard in the lower right is the main entry hall of the TBIT, where the check-in desks and Customs facilities are located. You can also see how close the west end of the airport is to the shoreline: that's the Pacific Ocean at the top of the shot.

This shot was taken from the Northwest, and shows the taxiways themselves. Sierra is the wide one on the left, while Romeo is the narrower one on the right. Right in the middle is the Qantas maintenance ramp with two A380s and a B747. On the right side of the picture, adjacent to Romeo, can be seen a pair of Virgin Australia B777-300s and an American B777-200; those parking positions are known as the "Romeo gates." The white-roofed building adjacent to the Romeo gates is the Coast Guard station; one of their helicopters can be seen on the ramp. On the left side of the photo is the International Terminal, which is having gates added along the west side. Eventually, the aircraft parked on these gates will push onto taxiway Sierra, creating a bottleneck for the ground controllers.

I don't have a new airport diagram handy, but here's how the new taxiways appear on our ground radar:

North is at the top of this presentation, so we're looking at the entire northern part of the airport, and a bit of the southern side; Romeo and Sierra are right in the middle of the picture.

From their positioning behind the terminal and maintenance hangars, you might surmise that we can't see aircraft on much of these taxiways from the tower, and you would be correct. We can see a bit of each end of Romeo, as well as a section in the middle:

The north end of Romeo: A US Airways Airbus turns from Delta onto Romeo

A retiring American B777 captain receives a salute from the LAX fire crews at the mid-point of taxiway Romeo (this is about the location of Checkpoint 2, which is the frequency changeover point on the South Route)

Sierra is going to be just as bad, or maybe even worse:

Now you see it . . .

. . . and now you don't. And that's the biggest airliner around.

The north end of Sierra: a United Airbus turns from Sierra onto Delta

There are two aircraft on Sierra in the following shot: an American and a United. Can you spot them?