United Airlines today announced an order to purchase 50 new Airbus A321XLR aircraft. The carrier plans to replace and retire their existing fleet of Boeing 757-200 aircraft. The new aircraft will also operate on select transatlantic routes. United expects to introduce Airbus A321XLR into international service in 2024, to serve destinations in Europe from its East Coast hubs in Newark/New York and Washington.
The new Airbus A321XLR aircraft is an ideal one-for-one replacement for the older, less-efficient, aircraft currently operating between some of the most vital cities in our intercontinental network. In addition to strengthening our ability to fly more efficiently, the A321XLR’s range capabilities open potential new destinations to further develop our route network and provide customers with more options to travel the globe.
Andrew Nocella, United’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer
Additionally, the airline will defer the delivery of their order of Airbus A350s until 2027.
These 50 new Airbus A321XLR aircraft values at $7.1 billion before customary discounts.
According to Bloomberg, people familiar with the matter said United is dealing with the grounding of the 737 Max.
Boeing has also postponed developing a new midsize airplane (NMA), while it attempts to end the grounding of their 737 Max, which was banned from the skies in March after two deadly crashes.
United’s Airbus deal is particularly noteworthy, since the Chicago-based airline is one of the largest customers of Boeing’s 737 Max 10 planes; with 100 on order. While that Max variant is designed to haul a similar number of travellers as the A321, it will lack the range to tackle nine-hour flights like the XLR.
The older 757 planes would be a gas guzzler in the view of airlines. The question is how comfortable it would be for passengers traveling on a321xlr transatlantic flights and having to sit longer considering that the new generation weight saving seats offer very thin back support for economy seat passengers.IMHO the older planes seats would be more comfortable than the new planes.
I hate the B737 in any version as its old,ugly and now dangerous too it seems with the MAX version being pushed to do things it was not meant to be able to do!
I will never fly on a B737 max on any airline ! I will look for airlines that use Airbus A319,A320,A321,NEOS or XL’s as they are being called or even Bombardier CS series and Embraer aircraft at that size! Why? Better,new,modern and reliable ! MUCH BETTER onboard space and comfort in all classes too !! Boeing is a cheap skate,should have done a complete new design for the 21st century by now! They have the development knowledge from the Dreamliner for smaller version etc in the form of a replacement for the B737’s and a new B797 as a B757 replacement we keep hearing about US airlines want ! Thats why United finally had enough and put a massive order in for the A321 Neo XLR or ULR ? Cannot wait for a B797 to arrive as it will be another 10 yrs almost!