Have you ever wanted to own an airliner? This could be a great opportunity to bag two bargain airworthy Airbus A340s
The French government has put a pair of Airbus A340-200s up for sale with a reserve price set at just €80,000 (£72,700) apiece.
The two widebodies – F-RAJA (c/n 075) and F-RAJB (c/n 081) – are both former Austrian Airlines examples and have been used by the Armée de l'Air (French Air Force) since 2006.
Juliet Alpha is the older of the two aircraft and first flew on February 2, 1995. Since then, it has accumulated 70,800 flight hours with its last flight for the air force scheduled for December 19.
Much like its sister ship, Juliet Bravo also took to the skies for the first time in February 1995, but five days after Juliet Alpha. The widebody has also amassed slightly less total flight time at just 68,400. The jet’s last rotation is scheduled for December 23.
According to the listings, the pair is being sold “as-is without warranty” and must be collected from Paris/Charles de Gaulle airport before the end of the year.
Another condition of the sale is that buyer must erase the French Air Force paint schemes “within a period of one month after removal” and that this is done at the new owners’ expense.
While in military service, the European-built widebodies have been primarily used for troop transport and evacuation flights.
When the 26-year-old examples were in the Austrian flag carrier’s fleet, they were laid out in a 257-seat two-class configuration. It’s not known whether this was changed upon admittance into the air force’s roster.
Powered by four CFM International CFM56 turbofans, both jets were most recently maintained by TAP Maintenance & Engineering in September and June, respectively.
The auction is expected to be run on December 22 at 2.00pm Paris time.
