Azores Airlines makes its last flight on October 15th

On October 15, 2018, the last A310 of Azores Airlines, a Portuguese airline from the autonomous archipelago of the Azores, made its last flight. With only 46 aircraft of the type remaining operational in the world, they are becoming exceptionally rare birds.

The A310 is medium- to long-range twin-engine wide-body jet airliner. Derived from A300 program, the Airbus A310 entered service in 1983 and was produced until 1998. There are two basic versions of A310: the -200 and -300. The latter one, being a longer rage version, entered service in 1986 with Swissair.

There are no more Airbus A310-200s in active service, and A310-300s are becoming extra rare. According to planespotters.net data, only 46 A310-300s remain in active service around the world – mostly in fleets of air forces and airlines based in Iran. Fifteen A310-300s are still flying in Europe, none of which are used for commercial passenger service.

The model can still be found within European air forces, as Spain, France and Germany still has them in their fleets. The latter one, the Luftwaffe, operates four A310 MRTT, a military transport version of the plane which can also act as a refueling tanker. The planes, however, are soon to be replaced by three A330 MRTTs ordered as part of NATO Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport Fleet.

During production years, Airbus made and delivered a total of 225 aircraft of both variants.