Air Belgium is set to retire its last Airbus A340 widebody aircraft following the jet’s final revenue flight.  

The Air Belgium flight 5961 took off at 8:00 PM AST (12:00 GMT) from Pointe-a-Pitre (PTP) on March 25 and landed in Brussels (CRL) eight hours later.  

Going forward, the flight will be conducted using one of Air Belgium’s Airbus A330neos. 

Air Belgium began leasing its fleet of three A340-300s from Airbus Financial Services in 2017. The three aircraft, built between 2007 and 2008, have previously been operated by Finnair.  

The first aircraft (registered 9H-HOP) was sold in 2020, before being converted into a freighter and is currently operated by Airhub Airlines. The second jet (registered F-WTAJ) is currently in storage.  

Air Belgium has been operating Airbus A330-200 freighters since 2020, and in late 2021 began to receive A330-900s with the intention of replacing the ageing A340s.  

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Established in 2017, Air Belgium initially planned to connect Brussels and Hong Kong. However, the carrier’s plans soon changed, and the airline transitioned to flying exclusively to Central America. 

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Air Belgium suspends its Hong Kong route for winter 2018-19
After a mere ten weeks of operations, Air Belgium announced on September 21, 2018, that it would interrupt its flights from Charleroi Airport (BSCA) to Hong Kong International Airport (HGK) during the coming winter period.