After the third quarter earnings call, American Airlines senior executives spoke with employees – in person, via Zoom, and through a recorded video on their intranet.
Senior Vice President – Network Planning Brian Znotins talked about the airline’s fleet plans, and in particular the new Airbus A321XLRs. In 2019 American Airlines ordered 50 Airbus A321XLRs, converting 30 orders for A321neo and exercising 20 neo options. These planes were supposed to be delivered: 8 in 2023, 22 in 2024, and 20 in 2025.
These have been… delayed. American had been talking about receiving the first of them in “late 2024.” Now the expectation is:
- The first A321XLR arrives in December 2024
- And 15 will arrive in 2025
That means they won’t yet have a substantial complement to grow Europe flying for summer 2025. Znotins described their plan to deploy the planes.
- These are expected to fly premium cross-country flights, replacing the Airbus A321T which currently flies routes like New York JFK to Los Angeles and San Francisco.
It’s previously been announced that that plane will be converted to a standard domestic A321. This will represent an improvement for business class, but a substantial downgrade for economy.
- New transatlantic markets that won’t work on a widebody which is too expensive and needs to fill too many seats, such as secondary European cities.
- Making current summer seasonal routes year-round, rotating out Boeing 787s that work to Europe in the summer with smaller XLRs in the winter.
- Adding a second frequency to some destinations, using two of these smaller planes instead of one larger one.
A321XLR Business Class, Credit: American Airlines
A321XLR Premium Economy, Credit: American Airlines
Znotins declined a request by employees for specific destinations.
I could list a lot of destinations but then they’d all show up on the blogs and then we’d have a lot of new competition for those destinations.
In the past American has shared that these will primarily fly from New York JFK and Philadelphia, though some may operate out of Charlotte and even Chicago O’Hare.
Znotins also noted that the new Boeing 787-9s they receive will have more business class seats, and that these will also work well in winter to Europe – because while there are fewer transatlantic travelers overall, premium demand remains strong. So these aircraft can operate on premium Europe routes in winter in ways that American would have been reluctant to use their coach-heavy configuration planes.
And since fewer seats mean less weight, he noted that the planes “can fly further.” That’s a tease of ultra-long haul flying that American has so far shied away from. In the spring airline executives were teasing possible service to Singapore in employee chats, though I was skeptical that this would happen.
I’m sad to see the Airbus A321XLR replace the A321T on cross country routes, because it means the end of true first class domestically, and because coach will get less legroom. The service does need an update, though.
And while I love the spaciousness of a widebody aircraft for long haul, I’m looking forward to the premium experience on these planes – especially because it will support that on routes that currently do not. Plus, with better range than a Boeing 737 MAX even coach passengers benefit from a wider fuselage (so more seat width) on long flights.
what do you think will happen with sna-jfk since i assume the new layout will make the plane heavier than before.
What’s the ‘substantial downgrade’ for economy? They’re pretty much the same economy seats / pitch
The A321Ts are quite nice, but they got really beaten up inside until the pandemic, when they were grounded but for a pair flying JFK-SFO. They are becoming dated inside and the XLR cabin will be a nice upgrade for the premium cabin, with more privacy.
This will put upward pressure on TATL in economy class fares — the kind of trips that used to be the mainstay of long-haul mileage runs before airlines eliminated so much of the value there.
That also means bad things for economy class mileage ticket pricing.
All the nonstop flights (SAS, Delta, United) from Stockholm to the US (mostly New York, but also Chicago and Miami) are 100% full almost all the time Stockholm-USA nonstop could use more flights, including from American.
Leff writes, of the A321T: “It’s previously been announced that that plane will be converted to a standard domestic A321. This will represent an improvement for business class, but a substantial downgrade for economy.”
None of that makes sense. Converting from a A321T to standard A321 config is essentially no change in economy, and a massive downgrade in business. Going from lie-flat to standard domestic F. I believe it has been reported the LRs that will be flying the premium transcons should have premium economy installed, so that’s an upgrade.
More poorly written nonsense from VFTW. It’s what we’ve come to expect.
What did you mean by “substantial downgrade” for economy? I mean, how could it be any worse than any of the other standard American economy seats on these kinds of planes? (Airbus 320/321, Boeing 737 etc)
so what will AA’s configuration be on the A321XLR?
AA, DL and UA all have premium configured A321NEOs coming; AA and UA are taking their premium configured models as XLRs while DL is supposed to get their first this year but just standard NEOs which will not be for transatlantic use.
It will be interesting to compare all 3 carriers’ premium A321NEOs – which is probably why they are all being hush-hush.
“I won’t tell you the new destinations because they’ll just end up in a blog” as I’m reading this on a blog lol
@Tim Dunn it’s 20 suites, 12 premium economy, and ??? for coach, maybe 118?
thanks, 305. I figured it would be premium heavy and include PE but 118 seems a little light and could doom the aircraft economically. It isn’t much more than the A321Ts.
I haven’t heard the total configuration for UA’s 321XLRs but DL’s 321 premiums are supposed to be 148 seats total w/ lie flat, PE and about half of the economy cabin in extra leg room.
I sincerely hope that AA is getting significant concessions from Airbus since they are literally delaying by 2 years. Ridiculous.
@Tony W – the A321T is a better experience in economy and more main cabin extra. US Airways management never retrofitted these planes. The A321XLR will be more like current coach on the rest of the fleet.
@Bob – you know perfectly well that I’m writing about the experience of the A321T vs the A321XLR
Literally nothing new here.
Cross country seems like a waste of it’s range capabilities. Why put it on routes that any narrowbody can fly?
Only Idiots at AA would use a 321xlr instead of the perfectly capable 321xl for Jfk-lax.
Reality by 2025 AA will be in Chapter 11 again.
@Parnel
There’s an A321NEO, A321LR, A321XLR, etc. AA would be hard-pressed to use an A321XL on anything since it doesn’t exist. 😉
Separately, AA doesn’t have any A321LRs on order so it’s either create a subfleet of A321NEOs for transcon or have a larger fleet of XLRs in a consistent configuration that can easily swap between Atlantic flying & Transcon.
Separately, TATL and Transcon flights from JFK (like LAX) are both premium markets and it makes perfect sense to cross-utilize a plane with lie-flat seats on both markets. DL and UA send TATL widebodies to SFO & LAX from JFK (or ewr for UA to include the lie flat 752s) all the time for the same reason — premium markets that need lie flat seats. Though I don’t think they’ve expressly said it, I wouldn’t be surprised to see UA use their XLRs on transcon as well though UA has talked about a MAX10 transcon configuration if memory serves.
Will this allow a return by AA to Manchester/BHX/GLA?
MAN-JFK/ORD/PHL
“Bob” above quite incorrectly says the A321xlr will be a major download for AA’s transcon business class, going from lie-flat to domestic F. He’s confused by AA’s plan to convert its old A321T to standard domestic A321’s. Those will NOT be used transcon after that. They will be replaced by the A321xlr, which will not have First, but will have a pretty awesome business class with direct aisle, privacy doors, as well as premium economy but with upgraded seats with privacy wings, a significant upgrade vs domestic first. The A321T business class is not direct aisle access. Bottom line, overall the A321T will be a nice replacement for the A321T, with much longer range for when there are strong winter headwinds.