1042United plans to retrofit new Polaris and Premium Plus seats on its next-generation Airbus A321XLR narrowbody aircraft, expecting to take delivery of the first model in 2024, with most orders to be delivered in 2025.
In December 2019, United placed an order for 50 Airbus A321XLR aircraft, part of which will be used to replace older narrowbodies for international flights.
See also: Goodbye Boeing 757: United closes order for 50 Airbus A321XLRs
Executive Traveller, an Australian media source, had an interview with Patrick Quayle, United’s Senior Vice President of International Networks and Alliances, and shared plans for the A321XLR in the airline’s future, including:
- A newly designed Polaris product designed exclusively for a narrowbody aircraft, existing Boeing 787 and 777 cabin cannot be installed on this type of equipment, United’s team is working on new designs.
- With the introduction of Premium Plus, United plans a 3-class cabin on its A321XLRs in an estimated 180-seat configuration. Recently, Star Alliance partner Scandinavian Airlines SAS was the first carrier to deploy a premium economy product on a narrowbody aircraft for international flights.
See also: Scandinavian Airlines SAS unveils first Airbus A321LR
- The A321XLR will exclusively operate transatlantic and Latin American routes, where it can operate services such as Newark (EWR) – Bogota (BOG) or destinations to the UK such as Edinburgh (EDI) and Glasgow (GLA), it could also be used to maintain some seasonal routes throughout the year, in the low season where a widebody aircraft is of high capacity these can be replaced by a narrowbody.
- United will be replacing part of the Boeing 757-200s that operate international flights with Airbus A321XLRs, although this model will not replace the Boeing 767s. The company also plans to reach new destinations that were not economically affordable on the 757s, which could include new flights from Newark, Chicago, and Washington to Europe, North Africa, and Latin America.
Narrowbody dominating the Atlantic?
Transatlantic flights on narrowbody aircraft are on the rise, leisure operators such as Air Transat still use Airbus A321LRs to expand their operations to Europe and maintain several destinations throughout the year where widebody was not possible.
In legacy carriers such as Aer Lingus, TAP Air Portugal, and SAS, several destinations in their transatlantic network are operated by A321LRs. Given the impact of the pandemic, these aircraft enabled several of these airlines to continue flying some routes and recover others for the next season where a widebody was unfeasible. These airlines share something in common and the same Business Class design on their A321LR’s. Could United use this same product?
See also: Big delay, cool experience: flying Aer Lingus A321neo
Recently JetBlue Airways landed in Europe with the A321LR. The airline made its first flights from New York to London to the main airports of Heathrow (LHR) and Gatwick (LGW), with a new generation of Business Class with 24 Mint Suites seats configured 1-1 extending a great premium offer.
United currently offers more premium seats than any other U.S. carrier, so perhaps United would launch a revolutionary product on its new A321XLRs?
See also: JetBlue presentó Mint Suite y Mint Studio: confort de A380 en un Airbus A321LR
