Virgin Atlantic May Delay A340 Retirements, Cites 787 Engine Issues

LONDON—UK long-haul operator Virgin Atlantic is considering postponing the retirement of its remaining Airbus A340s because of “ongoing supply issues” with the engines on its Rolls-Royce powered Boeing 787s.

In July 2019, a Virgin Atlantic spokeswoman said the airline planned to end its Airbus A340 operations by year-end.

In a Dec. 16 emailed update, a Virgin spokeswoman said, “While no decisions have been made, due to ongoing supply issues with 787 Rolls-Royce engines, our A340-600s may remain flying a little longer than planned.”

She added that aircraft-retirement time lines are always “subject to change,” giving fleet flexibility.

Virgin Atlantic has operated A340s (-300 and -600 variants) since July 2002; however, these aircraft are being replaced by more fuel-efficient A350-1000s. Virgin Atlantic has 12 A350-1000s on order, which began arriving in 2019.

The fleet transition also includes the phase-out of seven Boeing 747-400s by 2021. 

As of January 2020, Virgin Atlantic will operate a fleet of 45 aircraft, comprising four A330-200s, 10 A330-300s, three A340-600s, four A350-1000s, 17 787-9s and seven 747s.

The A330s-200s and -300s will be replaced with 14 A330-900neos that were ordered at the Paris Air Show in June.