Lufthansa became the first airline to operate the Airbus A340 in commercial service in 1993.
The A340 entered scheduled passenger service with Lufthansa on March 15, 1993. Airbus designed the aircraft as a long-range wide-body jet with four engines, making it especially suitable for routes where twin-engine aircraft faced stricter long-distance operating rules.
The first version, the A340-200, offered long range with a relatively smaller passenger capacity. Airbus later developed the larger A340-300 and the stretched A340-500 and A340-600. The family competed most directly with aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and Boeing 777.
The A340 is often remembered alongside the twin-engine A330 because the two types share a common fuselage and many systems. They are not the same aircraft, however: the A340 has four engines, while the A330 has two. Lufthansa’s 1993 service marked the commercial beginning of the four-engine Airbus family.