Airbus A321neo
The Airbus A321neo is a single-aisle airliner created by Airbus. The A321neo is developed from the Airbus A321 and Airbus A320neo family. It is the longest stretched fuselage of Airbus's A320 series, and the newest version of the A321, with the original A321ceo entering service in 1994 with Lufthansa. 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 of commercial use. Fitted with 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 737 MAX nine days before the introduction of the A321neo.
The A321neo began production in 2016, with final assembly taking place in Hamburg, Germany. 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 A321neo is the second generation of Airbus's A321 family. The time from development to first flight was six years, relatively short due to its nature as an improvement, as opposed to a clean-sheet designed aircraft.The maiden flight of the Airbus A321neo took place in Hamburg, with the aircraft registering in German identification. The prototype was equipped with CFM International LEAP 1A engines, the aircraft, registered D-AVXB, 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 commercial airline customer to order the aircraft, on 22 June 2011, ordering 304 A321neo. 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.
Like the A321ceo, the final production of the aircraft takes place in Hamburg, Germany. With Airbus being a multinational company, parts of the aircraft came from different countries throughout Europe and United States. One of the most notable is the A321neo's engine, with options for either CFM International's LEAP 1A, which is a joint venture between GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines, or Pratt & Whitney PurePower PW1100G-JM. 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 of, and its engine has of thrust.
It received its type certification with Pratt & Whitney engines on 15 December 2016, and simultaneous certification from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and Federal Aviation Administration 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 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 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. Improvements from the A320neo included increased wing loading and structural strengthening, most notably of all a stretched fuselage.Airbus Cabin Flex (ACF)
By permanently replacing the second door pair in front of the wing with a new second pair of overwing exits, the capacity of the A321neo is increased from 220 seats to 240 seats and fuel efficiency per seat is increased by 6%, exceeding 20% together with the new engines and the sharklets.The modifications should weigh more.
Initial A321neos have the A321ceo exit door configuration with four exit door pairs until the Airbus Cabin-Flex layout can be selected.
The third door pair, aft of the wings, is moved aft four frames back and could be plugged for 200 seats or less, and one overwing exit can be plugged for 165 seats or less.
In October 2017, the first A321neo ACF was in final assembly in Hamburg.
It was rolled out on 5 January 2018, and will be ground tested before first flight in the following weeks.
It was to be delivered in mid-2018 and the optional layout will become the A321neo default from 2020.
It made its first flight on 31 January 2018.
The ACF exit limit is 250 passengers, but the aircraft is available for up to 240 passengers; it could be offered for 244 or potentially beyond by integrating flight attendant seats in the lavatories outside wall to allow additional passenger seats.
The EASA allows 244 passengers with "overperforming" Type C exits at both ends, two Type III overwing exits, a Type C mid-cabin exit and a separate approval for individual customised cabin layouts.
The FAA would limit it to 200 as the mid-cabin exit would be derated to a Type III exit: 65 each for Type C doors at the ends plus 70 for all the Type III exits; Airbus seeks an exemption to increase it to 105 for 235 passengers for the aircraft. Four different door-arrangement configurations are noted below.
Variants
The variants of A321neo family aircraft are mainly defined by its cabin layout and fuel configuration.Airbus offers customers four different fuel configuration options with the standard A321neo: customers can select an optional auxiliary centre tank in the front cargo hold and up to two ACTs in the aft cargo hold. The A321neo-ACF with three ACTs is exclusively branded as A321LR.
Airbus offers customers two different fuel configuration options with the A321XLR: customers can select an optional ACT in the front cargo hold, in addition to the rear centre tank.
A321neo
The 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. 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.
File:American Airlines Airbus A321neo economy cabin.jpg|thumb|Economy class cabin on an American Airlines Airbus A321neo featuring full-LED ambient lighting
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.
In 2018, the A321neo list price was US$129.5 million.
A321LR
In October 2014, Airbus started marketing a 164-seat, MTOW variant with three auxiliary fuel tanks called the A321neoLR 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 was replaced by a two-class 206-seat configuration. 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, 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.
In April 2019, JetBlue announced its intention to use the A321LR on routes to London from Boston and New York-JFK; the airline has converted 13 of its orders for the A321neo to the A321LR to serve these routes. The airline started its service from JFK to London Heathrow on 11 August 2021, and to Gatwick on 29 September.
On 13 April 2019, the UAE branch of Air Arabia received its first of the six A321LRs with MTOW, these aircraft are expected to be used on long-haul routes departing from Sharjah to Nairobi, Bangkok, Phuket, Milan Bergamo and Kuala Lumpur, the longest being SHJ-KUL with over 7 hours of air time when returning to the UAE.
On 24 October 2022, Sichuan Airlines received its first A321LR, a total of six have been ordered, they are mainly designated to operate the nonstop Chengdu Tianfu — Malé and Chengdu Tianfu — Tokyo Narita route, which can take over 6 hours on some segments during the winter season, it is the first Chinese airline to receive this type.