United Airlines has recently announced nearly a dozen new routes to smaller European cities using its new A321XLR planes as they arrive—and with 50 of them on order, it’s a trend likely to grow.
The planes are being used to reach destinations in smaller cities without needing to change planes in London, Paris, Amsterdam or other hubs. The flights are going to destinations such as Marseille, Ljubljana, Catania, Palermo, Okinawa and more, where there’s not enough traffic to profitably fill a larger twin-aisle plane.
While the A321XLR is a pretty good size match for the once-ubiquitous 757, also a single-aisle plane, it’s about 30% less fuel-thirsty and has a range of up to 1,000 miles more. United is not the only fan; American also has 50 on order, and it is also going to numbers of European airlines.
Like United, most of them argue that the plane has enough premium space and modern comfort features that customers will be happy with it, despite having narrower aisles and fewer lavatories.
But Delta has made clear it doesn’t agree. Its chief commercial officer told a reporter from The Points Guy that “I don’t know if it’s the best product… I think we’ve got a best-in-class product. It’s hard to put a great product on a narrow-body for international. Especially if you’re trying to go far.” And Delta’s president, Glenn Hauenstein, has hammered the point home: “We’ve chosen not to fly narrow-bodies in the transatlantic because of product and brand issues. So we’re not going to go in that direction.”
