Airbus has announced that it is to launch the World Ranger – a new corporate version of its four-engine A340-200.

Airbus Corporate Jetliner vice president Richard Gaona said: “It is important to note this is not an ACJ2 but rather an entirely different aircraft based on the A340 with a range of 8,000 nautical miles. It is a new and different market and we evaluated our fleet and determined the A340 was right for the job.”

As well as increasing the range of the ACJ by 2,000nm, the A340 is 84ft longer and 5.5ft wider.

Nine private examples of Airbus’ A340 are already in service, though these have been developed on-demand for specific customers. Now the European manufacturer will actively market the World Ranger, targeting in particular owners of older Boeing 747 vip aircraft.

Gaona revealed that although there had been no orders as yet for the World Ranger he would be happy to receive two orders a year, as the A340 is an aircraft in production.