Airbus is apparently penciling in orders for a new model, the A321XLR. Reuters reports that Airbus has been offering a new longer-range variant of the A321 to potential customers to capture the market intended by Boeing’s NMA, for which a formal decision will not be made until the 777X is ready in 2020.
Analysis
The A321XLR is aimed directly to compete with the NMA. The aircraft is rumored to carry 206 in two-class configuration or 244 passenger in all economy over a range of 5,000 nautical miles. That would enable Airbus
to better compete with the NMA than the currently announced A321LR, which recently completed a 4,750nm test flight of 11 hours duration from the Seychelles to Toulouse, France with a simulated load of 160 passengers. The A321LR and A321XLR appear to be the replacement for the Boeing 757.
Insight
Airbus is not standing still in its efforts to kill the business case for the Boeing NMA and surround it with aircraft that are both more economical to acquire and more economic to operate. With narrow-body aircraft being lower in both acquisition and operating costs than twin aisle aircraft, which the Boeing 757 and 767 proved, Airbus has a low cost alternative in place at the low end of the “middle of the market” and stands ready to launch an even longer range alternative to match capabilities with Boeing’s new offering.
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