Airbus delivers the first A321neo Cabin Flex aircraft
MSN 8155, the first Airbus A321neo for Turkish Airlines, has been delivered.
The airline is the first to receive the new A321neo Airbus Cabin Flex (ACF) variant, which is set to become the standard for all A321neo aircraft by the 2020 time period.
Registered TC-LSA, the aircraft is the first of 92 Pratt and Whitney PW1100G powered A321neos set to be received by the airline.
Despite the aircraft being an ACF variant, Turkish Airlines has only fitted 20 business class seats and 162 economy seats – a significantly lower number than the aircraft’s certified 240.
So what is the Airbus Cabin Flex offering?
ACF is a factory enabled configuration of the aircraft that involves a modified rear fuselage section and door configuration. A single pair of doors sit in front of the wing, four exits sit above the wing and repositioned doors behind the wing, which can be deactivated. Two standard doors are located at the rear of the cabin.
The original Airbus A321 had a maximum allowable passenger amount of 220. The new ACF variant boosts this figure to 240 in a single class layout.
The ACF configuration is also the base of the Airbus A321 LR, which features a MTOW of 97t and three additional fuel tanks to fly roughly 4000 nautical miles.
The A321neo currently features a 15% reduction of fuel consumption compared to previous generation aircraft of this category. By 2020, this will see an improvement to 20% along with other slight changes such as the ACF becoming standard.