Airbus A321XLR arrival could disrupt long-haul networks

The service entry of an aircraft derivative is not normally something that shakes up the commercial airline industry. New aircraft variants usually introduce incremental improvements, less fuel burn or updated cabins. However, the arrival of the Airbus A321XLR could be different: The narrowbody has the potential to change the structure of long-haul networks.

Launched in 2019, the latest version of the A321neo is on the verge of flying its first scheduled route. Airbus expects to deliver the first aircraft in the third quarter to Iberia, which plans to introduce the XLR on the Madrid-Boston route.

• Airbus A321XLR certification is imminent
• Customers include legacy and low-cost airlines
• New variant enables operators to open thinner long-haul routes

Airbus is hoping that the aircraft will be certified ahead of the July 22-26 Farnborough International Airshow. The OEM had planned to reach that milestone by the end of June, but it says the sheer volume of paperwork has slowed down the process somewhat. The XLR, which recently flew at the ILA Berlin Airshow, also will be displayed at this year’s largest aerospace event.

The A321XLR is reviving a niche created decades ago by the Boeing 757, currently the only narrowbody capable of flying true long-haul services. Airbus asserts that the XLR will feature about 30% lower fuel burn than its predecessor, creating economic viability for thinner routes and new business models for long-haul travel. The A321XLR also could eat into some hub-and-spoke traffic as it enables competing airlines to fly direct to smaller markets beyond the hubs and poach transfer passengers—making it operationally cheaper for the carrier and more convenient for passengers to avoid connections at large, often-congested airports.

The limit lies in the number of markets with sufficient demand for nonstop routes. A much smaller cargo capacity compared with widebodies makes the XLR less attractive for airlines on routes with strong cargo demand.

Commercially, the A321XLR is already a success. Airbus has collected more than 500 firm orders for the aircraft, according to Aviation Week Network’s Fleet Discovery database. IndiGo is the largest customer with a commitment for 70 aircraft, followed by American Airlines with 54, United Airlines with 50 and Wizz Air with 47. The lineup shows that the aircraft has generated interest from both legacy and low-cost airlines. At American and United, the XLR will fill the role of the aging 757; elsewhere, the XLR will allow carriers to reach into new strategic spheres.

Although the aircraft is a version of the highly popular A321neo, the XLR is substantially different. The key difference is the XLR’s fuel capacity: The new rear center tank (RCT) has a capacity of slightly less than 13,000 liters (3,400 gal.), enabling the aircraft to fly routes of nearly 4,700 nm. Because the tank is integrated into the fuselage frame rather than sitting on a cargo floor structure, “we can put the equivalent volume of four tanks in the space of two,” says Gary O’Donnell, head of the A321XLR program. Airlines also have the option to add a second tank to the front cargo hold of the aircraft. For comparison, the 4,000-nm-range A321LR has three tanks in the back and one in the front fuselage.

Whether airlines will install the forward tank depends largely on their cabin choices and required ranges. For instance, carriers that install heavy premium business class seats and want to fly from Europe to the U.S. but farther than the East Coast, the added tank might be necessary, though it would reduce space for cargo and baggage. “Not all full-service carriers would have the additional center tank,” O’Donnell says. “Some would want the forward capacity.”

While the RCT extends to the bottom of the fuselage skin, it does leave space for the escape rafts on each side below the exit doors, and channels on the upper sides provide room for electrical wiring and air conditioning. The fuel system has been adapted accordingly.

Because of the extra fuel capacity, Airbus raised the maximum takeoff weight to 101 tons from 97. “We have completely changed the main landing gear and simplified the mechanism,” O’Donnell says. The nose landing gear has been reinforced, and the tires, wheels and brakes have been updated.

Airbus also has “reinforced 80% of the airframe,” O’Donnell says. “Most of the parts are similar but stronger because of the extra weight.”

In addition, engineers have simplified the mechanism of the inboard flaps. On the A321neo, a double mechanism extends twice, but on the XLR only once. The landing gear has also been changed, from double pistons to single.

Airbus engineers took advantage of an opportunity to bring the A320neo family closer to the technological standard of the A330neo and A350 by changing an important flight control element that still had a mechanical layout. Because of the RCT’s location, the traditional rudder controls have been replaced by what Airbus calls the eRudder. The technology is planned to be integrated into the baseline A321neo within the next three years.

The flaps, landing gear and electronic rudder control all help with weight reduction, which became a rather significant challenge after the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and later the FAA insisted on special conditions to ensure better fire protection and crashworthiness of the RCT. Airbus had to make several modifications. First, the OEM changed the lower skin of the aircraft to a fiber metal laminate, a material used on the upper skin of the A380 that is more fire-resistant than traditional aluminum alloys. That measure is supposed to help against so-called pooled fires from the outside.

Engineers also designed an extended belly fairing with a gap between it and the fuselage skin so that heat would not transfer inside as easily, O’Donnell explains. Airbus also had to demonstrate to airworthiness authorities that the aircraft could sustain a hard landing on the belly and absorb a large amount of the energy. For this improvement, Airbus added extra structure inside the belly fairing and a rubber liner on the RCT floor, the same material it uses on the A340-500. The material is supposed to prevent fuel from leaking in the event of a crash. “We have an extremely robust proposal, which is now being discussed with EASA and the FAA,” O’Donnell says. “It meets what they need. We now need to process through the documentation to get certification before the summer.”

O’Donnell notes that EASA “has a large workload. . . . We have submitted all our documents apart from two or three. EASA is processing them.” The final few documents are summaries that need to be signed. O’Donnell concedes that the “certification workload has grown.”

Because of the various weight additions and reductions required to comply with certification, the aircraft is slightly heavier than planned. “We still have the ability to meet everything that we have sold for 90% of city pairs,” O’Donnell says. “For [the remaining] 10%, we have 50-70 nm that we are looking to recover. We have a couple of ideas of how to get there over the next two years. We believe we will get half of that back, at least.”

The first four aircraft are either in final assembly or have left the line for completion. Airbus initially will build the XLR in Hamburg, its main single-aisle production site. One of the four final assembly lines there will be dedicated to the long-range variant plus some of the more complex versions and cabin layouts of the standard A321neo. Airbus has not revealed its choice among the four Hamburg facilities; the OEM introduced the fourth, more modern and automated assembly line in 2018 in a building originally dedicated to A380 completion.

All final assembly lines in the Airbus system—Hamburg; Mobile, Alabama; Tianjin, China; and Toulouse—are being updated to be A321-capable, so they could also assemble the XLR. “We want to get to maturity in Hamburg, and then we can decide as a business where we want to put production,” O’Donnell says. “What I’m trying to build most is flexibility. We cannot have so many single points of failure.”

To derisk XLR production, Airbus tries to “push complexity to the left as much as possible,” he notes. Complicated components, such as the RCT, are built in their own factories (Premium Aerotec in Augsburg, Germany, in this case) so that elements of substantial change are isolated and dealt with before the parts enter the final assembly line. Airbus hopes the sequence of moving aircraft from one assembly station to another can be maintained with few disruptions. Since the A321XLR will add to the growing number of complex layouts for the A321neo, that goal is particularly pertinent.

Airbus has not revealed detailed XLR production ramp-up plans. According to Fleet Discovery, seven aircraft are scheduled to be delivered this year, 51 next year, 120 in 2026 and a peak of 142 in 2027. If Airbus reaches its target rate of 75 per month for the A320neo family, 15-20% of production capacity could be allocated to the XLR. That snapshot view might change depending on future orders for the type and other A321neo variants. Fleet Discovery forecasts that XLR deliveries will fall steeply after 2029 based on current orders. The final eight XLRs from the current orderbook are scheduled to be handed over in 2033.

The rear center tank is built at Airbus subsidiary Premium Aerotec in Augsburg, Germany. Credit: Airbus

International Airlines Group (IAG) confirmed in May that Iberia, rather than sister carrier Aer Lingus, will receive the group’s first XLR once deliveries start “by the end of the summer.” IAG placed a firm order for 14 of the type at the 2019 Paris Air Show; eight are designated for Iberia and six for Aer Lingus. After a pilot pay dispute at Aer Lingus was not resolved in time, IAG decided to switch to Iberia as the launch operator.

Iberia’s A321XLRs will feature 182 seats in a two-cabin configuration, including 14 in its business cabin featuring fully flat seats that convert into beds and offer direct aisle access. “One of the great innovations offered by the A321XLR is its ability, as a single-aisle aircraft, to make long-haul flights while also providing a premium service at the same level as that enjoyed in widebody models, like the A330s and A350s in Iberia’s fleet,” the airline stated.

The XLR could enable the Spanish flag carrier to serve U.S. cities such as Atlanta; Charleston, South Carolina; Houston; Orlando, Florida; and Philadelphia.

Possibly the most interesting case study will be how IndiGo uses the XLR to expand its long-haul network. The Indian low-cost airline operates only two Boeing 777-300ERs to Istanbul on a wet lease from Turkish Airlines and has ordered 30 A350-900s for long hauls on dense routes. The airline also has purchased 70 XLRs that it can use to develop routes from secondary markets in India to destinations in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Growing IndiGo’s long-haul operations could disrupt European legacy carriers that are reliant on feed beyond their hubs and the Middle Eastern super-connectors that channel large numbers of connecting passengers through their systems. IndiGo’s future long-haul network also will compete with Air India, which is trying to recover market share based on a more traditional model.

“We are expanding more and more internationally,” IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers said at the recent International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual general assembly in Dubai. “The XLR will introduce direct flights to Europe and Asia. Passengers will no longer have to connect elsewhere.”

IndiGo has introduced a premium cabin layout for the main domestic routes in India, a move that could indicate plans to abandon pure low-cost play on the much longer international flights.

Of the U.S. Big Three, American and United have large XLR orderbooks, but Delta Air Lines has not yet ordered the type. American plans to offer a business class section with lie-flat seats in suites with doors, a premium economy section and regular coach. The airline has not yet announced how many seats will be available in each cabin or when operations will start. According to Fleet Discovery, the first aircraft is to be delivered in May next year, and all remaining XLRs are to be handed over by the end of 2027.

United is expected to receive its first XLR later in 2025 and will install a new version of its Polaris business class. The aircraft will replace the 757 fleet and will primarily fly routes from the East Coast to Europe and Latin America. The premium product would also make it a good option for transcontinental domestic flying.

Air Canada plans a 50-50 split between international and North American routes when it scales up to 30 A321XLRs. The airline is scheduled to take delivery of is first aircraft in late 2025, “but for us it’s really like a 2026 event,” Mark Galardo, executive vice president of revenue and network planning, said at the IATA meeting.

Canada is a very seasonal market with “big amplitudes between summer and winter, and that’s why that airplane was so key to our strategy going forward,” Galardo said. He cited the Montreal-Toulouse route, noting that “in the summer, a widebody is fine-—but in the winter, it’s a bit much. As you get the A321XLR, you start to better match demand with capacity.”

Galardo speculated that the A321XLR could open up new European routes, such as Porto, Portugal, and Marseille, France. “There are still a few European destinations that we want to cover,” he said. “It’s just the opportunity cost of a widebody is just way too big.”