Review of Lufthansa flight from Mexico City to Munich in Economy

Hi, dear flight-report members and readers!

In this FR I'd like to present a detailed review of a rapidly vanishing a/c type - Airbus A340-600 - on Lufthansa flight from Mexico (MEX) to Munich (MUC) which I took almost 8 years ago, 27 November 2017. This flight was a part of RT ticket MXP-FRA-MEX-MUC-MXP, which costed me 300 EUR (now it's hard to believe that such prices even existed). 

Intro

A340-600 was a culmination of what one can make from A300 fuselage. Using the fuselage of its firstborn, Airbus tried to cover as much of the market as possible: length-wise from 46.66 m (zucchini-like A310) to 75.36 m (pencil-like A340-600) and range-wise from 5375 km (A300B4-200) to 16670 km (A340-500). And this A300 fuselage still lives in currently produced A330-900s (and formally -800s, with only 7 produced)!

A340 family was a realisation of eventually failed slogan "4 engines 4 long haul". While A340-300 (218 units built, whereas A340-200 - the very first A340 modification saw just 28 units built) gained quite strong popularity due to its introduction time (before B777-200ER was launched), A340-500 (the longest range modification of all A300 descendants) and A340-600 with their reinforced wings, big RR Trent 500 engines and 4-wheel center MLG (to sustain impressive 380T MTOW) were commercial failures (only 34 A345s and 97 A346s were built), being unable to efficiently compete with B777-300ER. The last A346 was built in 2010. Nevertheless, A340-500 and -600s are very impressive-looking and legendary aircrafts.

In 2025 only very 3 airlines in the world still have A340-600 in regular service. In EU the only remaining A346 operator is Lufthansa, having just 6 units (2004-built D-AIHF and D-AIHI, 2008-built D-AIHW and 2009-built D-AIHX, D-AIHY and D-AIHZ). They have 4-class layout F8_C56_W28_Y189. LH plans to withdraw its A346 from commercial operation in the end of 2025 and then use them for a while as a backup for Allegris-A359s with first class. The remaining 2 operators are airlines of pariah states - Mahan Air in Iran with 5 A346s (4 former Virgin Atlantic birds and one former Etihad / Plus Ultra bird) and Conviasa in Venezuela (3 former VS birds, transferred from Mahan Air).

Important to notice that all these A346 operators have also A343s in service (LH is the world's largest A343 operator) and, even more, Mahan and Conviasa also have ultra-rare A342s! 

My flight LH521 MEX-MUC (27 November 2017) was operated by 2004-built D-AIHL, which was since stored in TEV in 2020 when pandemic hit the world, and never returned into service since.

Mexico city airport

In 2017 MEX was the only airport of the Mexico metropolitan area and the busiest in Latin America. MEX consists of 2 terminals - ugly and extremely dated T1, which houses most airlines, and more modern and pleasant (but also dated and incompetitive compared to modern airport terminals) T2, which houses Skyteam members AeroMexico and Delta. The only advantages of T1 is subway station, which provides excellent connection with city centre (T2, though doesn't have its own subway station and one has to take shuttle bus to T1) and multitude of cheap convenience stores like 7/11 and OXXO and currency exchanges with good rate. Inside T1 every detail of its interior cries that Mexico is in dire need of new airport. Well, before 2018 Mexico really had such plans and even began to build a new mega-airport on the former lake Texcoco, but then goverment changed and the then-new president AMLO scrapped these plans, despite millions USD already had been poured into the construction site. Pandemic and migrational crisis in Mexico put the final nail into coffin of the new MEX. Instead of it, NLU - a former military base in Santa Lucia (north of Mexico) was converted into passenger airport and part of lowcost flights were moved there to ease operations of overloaded old MEX. Due to the opening of NLU and separation of the traffic, MEX dropped to 3rd place (after GRU and BOG) in the rating of most busiest airports in Latin America.

Here I show some photos of T1 MEX taken a year before in November 2016.

An outside view of T1 from the subway station.

Ugly interior of T1 with its long landside hall with multitude of convenience stores and currency exchanges.

The most beautiful part of T1 - a Mexican-style panno, devoted to the history of the Mexican aviation.

Reminders of Mexicana de Aviacion, which went bust in 2010, but was recently reborn in 2023 and based in NLU with a fleet of 3 (temporary) B738s and 3 E2-195s. In 2026 Mexicana will become an all-Embraer airline.

Lufthansa check-in desks.

Duty free area after security. Important to notice that Mexico doesn't have exit passport control (like US, UK, Canada, Australia and NZ). When you board your international flight, the airline notices the authorities that you've left the country. 

Gloomy and overcrowded international gates area (well, when I was boarding my flight in the morning, it was much less crowded than on this evening photo).

Duty-free shops, devoted to Dia de Los Muertes - one of the most important holidays in Mexico

Important to notice that T1 MEX is absolutely spotter-unfriendly. The windows are entirely blocked by blinds and one can barely see outside. Just one small window in domestic gates area was uncovered, but from there it was impossible to see aircrafts on the apron. 

Boarding

My boarding pass for this flight.

The 2L door of A340-600.

LH logo after the door

The Second Business Cabin

Turning right, there is the second business cabin, consisting of 26 outdated Collins Diamond Parallel seats in 2-2-2 layout. These seats provide zero privacy and no direct aisle access for window seats.

The Premium Economy

Then, after auxiliary doors 3L/R, there is the premium economy cabin of 28 ZIMmagic seats in 2-3-2 layout. These seats are wide (19") with ample padding, and LH definitely shines in the hard product in this cabin. Premium economy cabin has no physical separation from economy cabin, which is typical for Lufthansa widebodies.

The Economy Cabin

Then follows economy, consisting of 189 seats in 2-4-2 layout, split between two cabins - the front one between premium economy and 4L/R doors, the rear one between 4 and 5 doors pairs.

Here is shown the front economy cabin, the rear one will be shown further.

The overhead bins are typical for post-2005 built Airbuses.

In the end of the front economy cabin there is one the most interesting features of LH A346 - the stair to the cargo deck, where Y lavatories are located. It will be shown in details further. So, LH A346s are kind of double-deckers, but, compared to A380s and B747s, the "extra deck" is below the main deck! The reason why LH arranged lavatories this way is premium-heavy 4-class layout, where premium cabins take a lot of real estate, eliminating the space for economy lavatories on the main deck. The downside of this solution is that LH A346s have less space for cargo that A346s with conventional layouts (all the rest A346 operators had and have 2- or 3-class layouts with enough space for lavatories on the main deck).

The Economy Seat

My seat for today is 39A in the rear part of the front economy cabin. The seat model is Recaro CL3520 (sad sigh) - it's essentially the same model as in LH B748, but wider (I measured 17.7" between armrests - less than maximum 18.1" this cabin can accomodate in 2-4-2 layout, but much better than miserable 17.1" in B748) and with much more modern IFE without an annoying underseat power box and without stupid location of remote (well, there's no remote, and the screen is very responsive) and ports (there is USB and headset ports in the IFE screen, whereas in B748 they are located in the armrest). The seat features adjustable headrest, coat hook, bifold tray table with cup holder and hard pocket under the IFE screen. The seat pitch is quite mediocre, even less than in LH B748 (another consequense of lack of real estate for economy in 4-class A346 layout), but for me (177 cm) it's still OK. Waiting on the seat are pillow and blanket. 

The seatbelt buckle.

The seat pocket contains headset, safety card, inflight magazine and duty-free magazine.

The IFE screen is crispy and responsive, day and night compared to the B748's one. The selection of content is essentialy the same.

The most unpleasant part about the seat is its almost zero level of comfort. Being a true Recaro, it's hard and uncomfortable. Even though the economy cabin was just half-full and I had empty seat near me, I did not felt comfortable in the seat the entire flight. 

The Flight

To the left Iberia A346 (EC-JNQ) is being prepared to MAD flight. 15 months later I flew exactly this aircraft on IB's longest flight MAD-SCL. Unfortunately, despite very good Weber 5751 economy seats, the flight was horrendous due to very unfriendly and aggressive crew, which is typical for IB (AFAIK, the situation with IB crews has slightly improved recently, but these A346s are gone since pandemic and IB fleet is now boring). 

Flaps in takeoff position.

Taking off, we overfly the then-future new MEX on the former lake Texcoco. In late November 2017 works were still underway, but next year president AMLO spelled the end for this. At that time it seemed to be extremely stupid decision, but looking from today, one can guess that realization of this megaproject during pandemic and migrational crisis could've drawn Mexico into deep economical crisis. Nevertheless, it's very sad that there won't be a new big modern airport in Mexico in any foreseeble future. The other largest modern airports in Latin America - Sao Paulo Guarulhos (T3), Bogotá El Dorado, Santiago de Chile (T2) and others - are many, many, many heads above dated ugly old MEX…

Climbing out over rural Mexico. A346 is so quiet compared to extremely noisy B748! 

Crew hand out snacks (pretzels) and drinks. I choose juice, beer and Baileys.

Time to stretch the legs.

Views of premium economy. There are just a few people in this cabin, most seats are vacant.

Views of the front economy cabin.

Views of the rear economy cabin, which is almost empty. Please notice that the last 4 rows (54-57) have 3-seater central blocks (due to fuselage tapering) and these blocks are aligned with the longitudinal axis of the aircraft, so if you're seating in row 54, you're not aligned to the IFE screen! 

The overhead storage of the very last row 58 is used for emergency equipment.

Let's explore "lower deck" where the economy lavatories are located. The stair is very impressive.

There are 5 lavs downstairs.

Meanwhile we're flying over Gulf of Mexico.

The meal service begins. Meat with potato and carrot, veg-cheese salad, dessert, soft cheese, bun and crackers. A bit bland, but quite tasty. The cutlery is metallic.

Meanwhile we're overflying Florida. On the second and third photos in this gallery are St. Petersburg and Tampa, and on the eight photo is famous Cape Canaveral. For me, pre-covid flights between Mexico and EU were the only way to look at US, because I'm not able to obtain a visa due to a shadow ban by US authorities.

Due to very light load of economy, I try my luck with asking for additional meal, and crew bring me the same meal as before, but in more modest presentation and in less quantity. But, overall, two meals are enough to sustain the flight.

Now most window blind are closed, and both economy cabins are in semi-darkness.

We're flying over North Atlantic, and there'll be only ocean for hours.

View of the wing and outer RR Trent 500 engine from the very last economy row. As we are flying eastwards, the daylight is very short on this flight and sun already begin to set…

… and the most spectacular part of the flight begins. 

Setting sun shines directly into the tail and lighten wing, engines and contrail in yellow…

… turning to pink-orange as sun is getting closer to the horizon. In the sunset rays contrail casts pulsing shadow on the wing. Eventually the last rays disappear and the night begins to fall. 

At this time we are mid-way to Munich, flying not far from North-Eastern Canada.

I take a chocolate bar and drinks and then try to sleep, but with no success - Recaro seats are so uncomfortable, that even having 2 seats doesn't help. I should've moved to the rear cabin and take a vacant 4-seater block to be able to lay down and stretch…

Eventually cabin lights come on before breakfast. Let's stretch the legs again.

View of the rear economy.

Rear galley and space between 5L/R doors.

The night-lit stair to the lavs.

We're already over Western Europe.

The breakfast consists of bland omelette with vegs, fruit salad, youghurt, bun, jam and butter. Cutlery is plastic. Quite disappointing, but better than nothing.

We're crossing Rhine…

…and soon land in Munich. View of economy cabin after the flight.

My seats 39AC after the flight.

The Economy Cabin After The Flight

View of the front economy cabin upon disembarkment.

The Premium Economy Cabin After The Flight

Then a bit of the premium economy cabin again.

The Second Business Cabin After The Flight

And the 2nd business cabin in more details.

Then I ask the crew whether it's possible to visit the front part of the airplane and, thankfully, they permit. It was not obvious, because the crew on this flight were not especially friendly.

The Front Business Cabin After The Flight

The front business cabin, consisting of 30 Collins Diamond Parallel seats in 2-2-2 layout.

The First Class Cabin After The Flight

And, finally, the impressive first class cabin consisting of 8 massive seats with no privacy, the same as in LH A380 and B748.

And now it's time to say goodbye to D-AIHL. View of the front part of the plane from the jetbridge.

View of portside RR Trent 500 engines from the jetbridge. 

And, eventually, it becomes possible to make photos of the airplane from the arrival gallery of M concourse.

Then I go to passport control to transit for short intra-Schengen flight to MXP.

Thank you for your attention and see you in the next FRs!