Tag Archives for airbus a321xlr.
American Airlines is the only airline offering first class in addition to business class on some cross country flights. They do this with a dedicated fleet of Airbus A321T aircraft. However this special fleet, and special product, seem unlikely to last.
At a recent internal question and answer session with pilots, Vice President of Network and Schedule Planning Brian Znotins shared how American is thinking about using the Airbus A321XLR in Charlotte and how it will trade off with existing widebody service.
New aircraft are always exciting, even when they’re domestic planes with Oasis interiors. But we’re expecting new premium seats, more business class seats, and aircraft that allow flying to more non-stop destinations and more destinations to be served year-round.
American Airlines failed to build a mockup of its new domestic interior, and that’s how obvious mistakes were made. In CEO Doug Parker’s telling, they cared about squeezing seats onto the plane not what it was like to sit in those seats or for employees to work the new configuration.
That’s changing for upcoming retrofits and new products like the Airbus A321XLR and Boeing 787-9 new interior.
Alaska Airlines, based in Seattle, has been an all-Boeing operator. They acquired Virgin America which flew Airbus narrowbodies. It’s seemed from the beginning that they’d eventually dump those planes, and now the fate of Alaska Airlines Airbus A319s and A320s is sealed with Alaska’s order of 23 additional Boeing 737 MAX 9s.
Yet it appears Alaska is talking to Airbus about what to do with the 30 Airbus A320neo orders it inherited from Virgin America – and instead of cancelling, it’s possible they could be converted to A321XLRs.
Airbus now is poised for a big win because United is poised to order 50 Airbus A321XLR long range narrowbodies. Since the order is being reported at $7.1 billion we can assume it’s roughly half that. Deliveries would be slated to begin in 2024.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
