The Airbus A321neo is a narrow-body single-aisle airliner created by Airbus. The A321neo (neo being an acronym for "new engine option") was developed from the Airbus A321 and is part of the Airbus A320neo family, alongside the A319neo and A320neo, being the longest member of the family. It typically seats 180 to 220 passengers in a two-class configuration, with up to 244 passengers in a high-density arrangement.
The A321neo was announced by Airbus in December 2010, as an improvement and replacement to the A321ceo. Fitted with new engines and sharklets as standard, the A321neo has the longest fuselage of any Airbus narrow-body airliner in commercial use. Available with either CFM International LEAP-1A or Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-JM engines, Airbus advertises a 20% increase in fuel efficiency per passenger, with more range, or more of payload. Boeing introduced a new generation of their competing narrowbody family, the 737 MAX, nine days before the introduction of the A321neo.
The A321neo has the same overall length as the A321ceo, with an increased fuel efficiency and performance rating. The A321neo has a range of , with an MTOW (maximum take-off weight) of , and its engine has of thrust.
The A321neo began production in 2016, with final assembly taking place in Hamburg, Germany, as well as in Toulouse, France; Mobile, United States, and Tianjin, China. It entered service with Virgin America on 31 May 2017, taking its first commercial flight. , a total of 7,064 A321neo aircraft had been ordered by 88 disclosed customers, of which 1,752 aircraft had been delivered.
Development The A321neo's development was announced by Airbus in 2010, 16 years after the introduction of the original A321ceo.
The first flight of the Airbus A321neo took place in Hamburg. The prototype, registered D-AVXB and equipped with CFM International LEAP-1A engines, was flown by test pilots Martin Scheuermann and Bernardo Saez Benito Hernandez. The flight lasted 29 minutes, and performed various tests during that time. AerCap was the first customer to order the aircraft on 27 April 2011, with IndiGo being the first airline to order the aircraft, on 22 June 2011, ordering 304 of the type. The first A321neo entered commercial service with Virgin America in May 2017, who merged with Alaska Airlines in 2018; the latter also acquired all of Virgin's aircraft.
It received its type certification with Pratt & Whitney engines on 15 December 2016, and simultaneous certification from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the CFM LEAP-powered variant on 1 March 2017. The first A321neo, leased by GECAS, was delivered in Hamburg to Virgin America, configured with 185 seats and LEAP engines, and entered service on 31 May 2017.
Delivery delays
As Pratt & Whitney encountered early reliability issues with the PW1100G, retrofitting fixes affected the deliveries. Cebu Pacific was due to add its first three A321neos to its 40 A320ceos by the end of 2017 but agreed to postpone them; it was to receive seven A321ceos in 2018, starting in March, to upgauge A320 routes from the slot-constrained Manila Airport and redeploy some of its international A330s to shorter-haul routes. Air New Zealand has at least seven A321neos in its 13 A320-family orders, increasing seating capacity by 27% over A320ceos currently used on short-haul international routes, mainly to Australia; the neos were delayed until July 2018 for the A320neos and September 2018 for the A321neos with a new, higher density and some A320ceo leases to be extended for the interim.
Hawaiian's first two A321neos were planned to have been delivered in 2017 before its upcoming winter peak season but were postponed to early 2018, a "frustrating" and "irritating" delay, with another nine in 2018, mostly in the first half. They are intended to open up thinner routes to the U.S. mainland not viable with its widebodies, such as Portland to Maui, or better matched and allowing two routes to be expanded to daily service instead of seasonal, bypassing its Honolulu hub for half of the A321neo fleet.
Well suited for routes to the US West Coast, Hawaiian's 189-seat A321neos are more efficient than the competing narrow-body aircraft and even have slightly lower per-seat costs than its 294-seat A330-200s.
Design
The A321neo is a narrow-body aircraft with a retractable tricycle landing gear, powered by two wing pylon-mounted turbofan engines. It is a low-wing cantilever monoplane with a conventional tail unit having a single vertical stabiliser and rudder. Changes from the A321ceo includes a new engine and extended fuselage fuel tanks..
Aircraft Cabin Flex (ACF) Early A321neo aircraft retained the exit configuration of A321ceo with four pairs of doors, two forward of the wing and two aft.
In 2015, the Aircraft Cabin Flex (ACF) layout became available as an option. The ACF layout replaces the second pair of doors ahead of the wing (L2/R2) with two pairs of Type III+ overwing exits with dual lane slides designed to accommodate higher passenger flow and moves the third pair of doors (L3/R3), located aft of the wing, further aft.
The ACF layout gives operators flexibility to activate or deactivate exits based on their selected seating density. For lower-density layouts, the L3/R3 doors or one pair of overwing exits can be replaced with plugs, which are lighter and do not require door mechanisms or associated maintenance.
In higher-density configurations, maximum seating capacity increases from 220 to a theoretical exit limit of 250 passengers, although such a configuration has not been certified. Certification limits vary by regulator. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) permits up to 244 passengers when using larger Type C* doors at both ends with dual lane slides, removing bulkhead walls, and relocating flight attendant jump seats to be deployed in front of the lavatory doors. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), by contrast, does not recognize these enhanced Type C* and Type III+ exit types and classifies them as standard Type C and Type III exits, limiting capacity to 200 passengers under existing rules. Airbus has sought similar recognition from the FAA to allow higher seating capacities.
When equipped to carry 240 passengers, fuel efficiency per seat is improved by approximately 6%. Combined with new engines and sharklets, Airbus projected a fuel burn reduction exceeding 20%. The modifications add about 100 kg (220 lb) to the aircraft's weight.
The first A321neo ACF was in final assembly in Hamburg in October 2017 and made its first flight on 31 January 2018. The first aircraft with this configuration was delivered to Turkish Airlines in July 2018, and ACF became the standard A321neo layout from 2020.
Variants The A321neo is available in multiple variants differentiated by fuel capacity. The A321neo can be configured with up to three optional auxiliary centre tanks (ACTs), including one in the forward cargo hold and up to two in the aft cargo hold, occupying space otherwise available for cargo. Aircraft equipped with three ACTs are designated A321LR (Long Range).
The A321XLR includes a rear centre tank (RCT) as standard and can be fitted with an additional ACT in the forward cargo hold, also reducing available cargo space.
+A321neo family variantsMarketing nameCabinTank config.Fuel capacityCargoFrontAftA321neo rowspan="3" 10×LD3451×ACT9×LD3452×ACT8×LD345A321neo ACF/LR10×LD3451×ACT8×LD3452×ACT7×LD345A321LR1×ACT2×ACT6×LD345A321XLR1×RCT8×LD3451×ACT6×LD345
A321neo
The base A321neo has the same length as the original A321ceo but includes structural strengthening in the landing gear and wing, increased wing loading and other minor modifications in order to increase Maximum Takeoff Weight (MTOW). Its first customer was ILFC.
The Airbus A321neo prototype, D-AVXB, first flew on 9 February 2016. It suffered a tailstrike three days later and was flown to Toulouse for repairs, delaying the certification programme for several weeks.
The A321neo received its type certification with Pratt & Whitney engines on 15 December 2016, and simultaneous EASA and FAA certification for the CFM LEAP-powered variant on 1 March 2017. The first A321neo, leased by GECAS, was delivered in Hamburg to Virgin America, configured with 184 seats and LEAP engines, and entered service in May 2017.
The neo empty weight is greater than the ceo, due to its new engines and associated airframe modifications: engine pylons, wing structure and bleed and oil systems were adapted. At the same maximum weight, it reaches FL310 and 4 minutes earlier than the ceo.
At FL330 (), ISA and , it burns at long-range cruise or at high-speed cruise. To offer similar takeoff performance, pitch response to stick input is a rate-command to hit the 3° per second rotation rate to capture the right pitch attitude and there is an "electronic tail bumper" preventing a tailstrike if the stick is less than three-quarters of the way aft; additional thrust, slower rotation and lift-off speeds require more rudder authority and its maximum deflection went from 25° to 30°.
By January 2018, the A321neo had received 1,920 orders, exceeding orders for the A321ceo. By this time, the A321neo accounted for 32% of all A320neo family orders, whereas the original A321 represented just 22% of A320ceo family orders. By July 2022, the A321neo represented over 53% of all A320neo family orders.Orders & Deliveries. Airbus S.A.S. 31 July 2022. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
In 2018, the A321neo list price was US$129.5 million.
A321LR
In October 2014, Airbus started marketing a 164-seat, MTOW variant with up to three optional removable auxiliary fuel tanks (ACT) called the A321neoLR (Long Range) with more operational range than a Boeing 757-200 configured with 169 seats, 27% lower trip costs and 24% lower per seat costs; it was scheduled for introduction in the second half of 2018, two years after the A321neo.
Airbus launched the A321LR on 13 January 2015 with Air Lease Corporation as the launch customer, hoping to sell 1,000 examples of the variant. The initial layout of 164 seats (20 in business, 30 in premium economy and 114 in economy) was replaced by a two-class 206-seat configuration (16 in business and 190 in economy). Range is , greater than the regular 93.5t MTOW A321neo, making it the first version of the A320 family to have true transatlantic capability, thus replacing the Boeing 757 in the middle of the market. The A321LR has the Cabin Flex layout and was to be first delivered in Q4 2018.
Certification was aimed for the second quarter of 2018, with a programme including tests with one, two, three, or no additional centre tanks and a transatlantic flight on 13 February. Test flights included a LEAP-powered, long range flight by great circle distance, flown in near 11 hours and the equivalent of 162 passengers over including headwinds, with 5 crew and 11 technicians. Airbus announced its joint FAA/EASA certification on 2 October 2018, including ETOPS up to 180 minutes, allowing any transatlantic route.
As original launch operator Primera Air ceased operations, the first was delivered to Israeli carrier Arkia in November 2018, while 120 orders have been secured from about 12 operators: Norwegian, TAP Air Portugal, Air Transat, Aer Lingus, Air Astana, Air Arabia and Azores Airlines will receive theirs from 2019, and Jetstar and Peach in 2020.
On 13 November 2018, Arkia received the first A321LR, featuring 220 seats in a single-class and to be deployed to London, Paris, Barcelona for up to 5-hour sectors, or to Zanzibar and the Seychelles, saying it is the first narrow-body more efficient than the 757-300 it operates.