Qantas’ first Airbus A321XLR holds lots of promise

In a hanger at Airbus’ Hamburg assembly line, a new plane type for Qantas is nearing completion. The airline expects to receive its first Airbus A321XLR in June – the first step of a significant renewal program for its narrow-body workhorse fleet.

With an additional fuel tank located in the rear centre of the fuselage, the Airbus A321XLR can soar for up to 8,700 km, opening up the possibility of many new ‘long and thin’ routes that have traditionally not been viable with widebody jets. In that way, Australia is the perfect sandbox to test the XLR’s wings.

But don’t expect a flurry of new route announcements just yet. Qantas aims to roster its first few Airbus A321XLRs on domestic and short-haul international routes as a training ground of sorts for flight and cabin crews.

The A321XLR is the key to network expansion

Speaking to Point Hacks and other invited media at the Airbus facility in Hamburg, Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson name-checks Perth as a prime hub for the Airbus A321XLR. Perth Airport is building an all-new Qantas combined terminal in the coming years.

“We’re hoping… there’ll be an opportunity for the Airbus A321XLR to have a base in Perth and unlock those routes. The Philippines is a growing market, so we’re seeing the opportunity, from Perth particularly, to enter those new markets,” she explains.

Coincidentally, the Qantas Group has also just applied to the IASC for three-weekly Jetstar flights between Perth-Manila and Brisbane-Cebu.

As for other cities, Hudson sees potential for the return of Qantas colours flying internationally from Adelaide and possibly new overseas destinations from Canberra.

“We’ve talked about Adelaide-Singapore before, and conceivably, there can be Canberra-Singapore, Perth to India or Perth to Malaysia. If you get the product and experience right, I think it’s the perfect opportunity for us to grow new routes in the market.”

Domestic and short-haul international routes to start

As the first tranche of XLRs are outfitted with 20 recliner seats in Business Class and 180 standard seats in Economy, the focus is initially to improve capacity on shorter routes. In comparison, that’s 12 more Business Class seats and up to 18 more Economy seats than the current Boeing 737.

“The plan for that one [Qantas’ first Airbus A321XLR] is to fly where the Boeing 737 flies and some of that could be international. It won’t be on one dedicated route. We need more aircraft to come so we can have a fleet with more scale.”

When asked when that threshold is, Hudson muses that 15-20 XLRs will be the right point to start a broader network expansion and that she expects to reach the fleet target by the end of 2027.

Will lie-flat Business make it to the A321XLR?

While the Business Class seats are yet to be installed on the aircraft we previewed, they will be similar to the ones found on the Airbus A220, in a 2-2 layout with a 37″ seat pitch.

The standard seat pitch in Economy (30″) is comparable to the Boeing 737, which inevitably begs the question of whether passengers will be willing to fly longer routes on a single-aisle plane. Hudson replies:

“It comes down to the customer experience and the product that you’ve got. Qantas is a full-service carrier and the opportunity that we have with this aircraft is to enter markets that we’re not operating on, which I think is fantastic.”

For those longer flights, there’s not much that can be done to improve Economy beyond more pitch and in-seat screens. But at the pointy end, Qantas has plenty of scope to install an international-grade, lie-flat Business Class seat. Hudson indicates that Qantas will soon decide whether to create a separate, more luxurious sub-fleet of Airbus A321XLRs.

“There’s a certain amount of planning and design and product development that goes into a new configuration. So I’d like to see it sooner or later. But we need to work up the case for that and understand the economics.”

Another question is whether the increased capacity of the Airbus A321XLRs will also result in Qantas releasing more Classic Flight rewards on those flights regularly.

Photography by Brandon Loo, who visited the Airbus facility as a guest of Qantas and Airbus. Point Hacks covered the fare between Australia and London.