It’s been two years since the A321XLR entered service. How are things going?

The aircraft that was promised to change long-haul narrowbody travel… hasn’t. Before you go blaming the XLR for not living up to promises (don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of time to do that later), let’s consider the primary reason the XLR hasn’t revolutionized what you can do with long-haul narrowbodies - the A321LR already has.

The myriad of changes (not to mention a new type certificate) the XLR required to eek out an additional 700 miles was expensive, to say the least. New center fuel tanks, beefed landing gear, larger brakes, different inboard flaps, electronic rudder control, larger water and waste tanks… you get the idea. It took some doing.

But what started as an engineering masterpiece has devolved into an economic “meh”. For some airlines, such as JetBlue and Wizz Air, that economic “meh” has turned into a contractual “thanks, but no thanks.” Both carriers are actively deferring or converting XLR orders while trying to find homes for the XLRs already committed or on property.

The reasons are apparent - the A321XLR requires a lot of expensive upgrades to reach only a handful of markets. How many markets?

(To be read in the voice of Sesame Street’s Count von Count): Two. Two markets.

The only two markets served by the A321XLR that operate farther than any A321LR are BOM-AMS by IndiGo, and MAD-SDQ by Iberia. The two routes operated a total of 58 flights last month.

Of course, we must also consider the payload benefits of the XLR that can move more stuff further. For that, we’ll throw in MAD-SJU, MAD-REC, and finally BNA-DUB at 3,383 nautical miles. Based on the A321LR profile, we can make a stretch assumption that the drop-off in the number of flights beyond 3,300 NM is due to payload.

Over half of the A321XLR’s flights are within 2,000 NM, while 25% of the flights are within 500 NM. That’s not unexpected, as airlines such as Qantas and American work the new aircraft into the schedule. However, an XLR operated on any flight within 3,000 miles represents one simple metric - higher cost. In October, this represented 83% of the XLR’s flights.

But the XLR is delivering incremental range over the A321LR, even if limited to a sliver. For airlines that must fly a market within that sliver, the airplane is delivering value.

For this reason, we once again propose a name change for the A321XLR. To better align with aviation standard nomenclature, the A321XLR is better referred to as the A321SP.

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