It is the end of an era. With today’s landing of flight LH419 from Washington, D.C., Lufthansa is retiring the Airbus A340-600 after 23 years of commercial operation.

After a flight time of eight hours and five minutes, the aircraft, registered D-AIHW, landed on schedule at Frankfurt Airport with 267 passengers and 15 crew members on board. Numerous spotters and influencers were waiting to greet it, and passengers on board gave a long round of applause. Many of the guests had bought tickets specifically to take part in this special flight. All passengers received a specially produced farewell booklet as a gift.