Cessna 340A
Everything here is true of every aircraft of the type, not of any one aircraft.
The 340A is a pressurised six-seat piston twin, built 1976-1984, and it occupies a specific niche: it is the cheapest way to fly a family in a pressurised cabin in the flight levels. It has airstair entry, a comfortable club-seating cabin, known-icing equipment on many aircraft, and cruises around 195 knots in the low twenties where the weather and the turbulence usually are not. Owners typically use them for 500 to 900 mile business trips.
The running costs are what stop most people. Two turbocharged, geared-pressure Continental TSIO-520 engines are expensive, have a 1,400-1,600 hour recommended overhaul life, and are hard on exhaust systems and turbochargers; cracked exhaust components on a pressurised aircraft are a carbon-monoxide risk because the cabin air comes off the engines. Add two propellers, the pressurisation system, deice boots and a complex fuel system with tip and locker tanks that requires genuine study. An annual inspection can run into five figures before anything is fixed, and an engine event can cost more than the aeroplane. Insurance requires a multi-engine rating, high-altitude training and usually formal recurrent training. It is a lot of aeroplane for the purchase price and a lot of aeroplane to own.
Variants of the Cessna 340
- 340 · 1972 · 164 active
- 340A · 1976 · 543 active · this page
Also consider
- Cessna 310RScore 28.5/50 · 6 seats · 195 kt
- Beechcraft E-55Score 28.5/50 · 6 seats · 200 kt
- Beechcraft 58 (registered as BEECH)Score 32.2/50 · 6 seats · 200 kt
Compare with…
Put Cessna 340A side by side with up to three other models.
- Cessna 340A
Watch this model
One email a day if anything changes: new ADs and NTSB records.
What it is
| Seats | 6 |
|---|---|
| Landing gear | tricycle |
| Engines | 2 |
| Engine | Continental TSIO-520-NB (turbocharged) |
| Horsepower | 310 hp |
| Fuel | 100LL |
| Certification basis | CAR3 |
| Production start | 1976 |
| Production end | 1984 |
| Endorsements required | complex;high-performance;multi-engine;pressurized/high-altitude |
Performance
| Cruise speed | 195 KTAS |
|---|---|
| Range | 1,100 nm |
| Service ceiling | 29,800 ft |
| Climb rate | 1,650 ft/min |
| Stall speed (Vso) | 71 KCAS |
| Takeoff over 50 ft | 2,175 ft |
| Landing over 50 ft | 1,850 ft |
Load and fuel
| Seats | 6 |
|---|---|
| Useful load | 2,069 lb |
| Full-fuel payload | 1,091 lb |
| Max takeoff weight | 5,990 lb |
| Empty weight | 3,921 lb |
| Usable fuel | 163 gal |
| Fuel burn at cruise | 36 gal/h |
Cost of ownership
| Price, low | $149,000 |
|---|---|
| Price, high | $589,000 |
| Prices as of | 2026 |
| Engine TBO | 1,400 h |
| Overhaul cost, low | $60,000 |
| Overhaul cost, high | $85,000 |
The fleet and its record
| Registered, all time | 882 |
|---|---|
| Active fleet | 543 |
| Median year built | 1978.0 |
| NTSB events, last 10 years | 20 |
| Fatal events, last 10 years | 5 |
| Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years | 36.831 |
| Personal-flying events per 1,000 active | 22.12 |
| Ownership transfers, last 24 months | 142 |
| Transfers per 100 active | 26.153 |
| Airworthiness directives | 14 |
| Directives, last 5 years | 0 |
| Rate confidence | ok |
- Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years: per 1,000 active aircraft · base 543 active.
- Personal-flying events per 1,000 active: per 1,000 active aircraft · base 543 active.
- Transfers per 100 active: per 100 active aircraft · base 543 active.
Peer scores6
| Peer class | Fixed wing multi-engine, piston, 2 engines, 5-6 seats |
|---|---|
| Accident record | 6.9 of 101 |
| Severity | 6.2 of 102 |
| Access | 6.2 of 103 |
| Support | 9.4 of 104 |
| Liquidity | 7.6 of 105 |
| Overall (sum of the categories shown) | 36.3 out of 506 |
- Accident record: class median 28.74 · 56 models in class.
- Severity: class median 33.33.
- Access: class median 2,812.25.
- Support: class median 56.
- Liquidity: class median 21.91.
- Each of the five categories places the model within its peer class, from 0 (the worst of the class) to 10 (the best): a position among comparable models, not a grade. The overall score is the sum of the categories shown that are scored, out of 10 for each (50 when all five are); it is given only when at least 4 of the five are scored, and it can be set against another model's only when both are in the same peer class and scored on the same categories. When accident record and severity cannot be scored because the model has too few records, the other three give a partial score out of 30, labelled as such; it is never set against a full score.
Data as of: FAA registry Sep 28 · NTSB Oct 2 · ADs Oct 6 · scores Sep 30