Airbus Updates No.2147

Canada's Air Transat adds first A321neo(LR)

Air Transat Airbus A321-200NX © Airbus

06.05.2019 - 18:19 UTC

Air Transat (TS, Montréal Trudeau) has taken delivery of its first A321neo(LR) following the arrival of C-GOIE (msn 8755) in Montréal Trudeau on Friday, May 3. The longhaul-capable narrowbody jet is the first of fifteen the Canadian leisure specialist will lease from AerCap.

"We look forward to seeing our first two A321neo(LR)s arrive in the next three months, the first step before we start reaping the benefits of the changes in the coming years," Jean‑Marc Eustache, President and Chief Executive Officer of Transat, said in a statement.

The second jet is expected to arrive in June while four more will arrive in autumn this year. The jets feature 12 in premium-economy and 187 in economy. Operations are expected to begin later this month with flights from Montréal Trudeau to Québec, France, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. Service from Québec will reach France, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic.

“The aircraft’s long range will optimize our operations in our core markets, namely in our destinations in Europe, the Caribbean, and Central and South America," Annick Guérard, Chief Operating Officer at Transat, said.

Air Transat said it will use the LRs to gradually replace its fleet of A310-300s (now down to six) as they are retired and will also use them to replace certain A330s whose leases expire through 2022. Deliveries will take place between now and Spring 2022. The carrier will also lease two standard-variant A321neo.

Air Transat’s currently operates six A310-300s, seven A321ceo, sixteen A330-200s, four -300s, one B737-700, and seven B737-800s.

Airbus Updates No.2130

TAP Air Portugal adds first A321neo(LR)

Fleet of TAP Air Portugal © TAP Air Portugal

08.04.2019 - 21:06 UTC

TAP Air Portugal (TP, Lisbon) took delivery of its first A321neo(LR) on Friday, April 5. Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows CS-TXA (msn 8593) was ferried from Hamburg Finkenwerder to Lisbon where it is currently awaiting induction into service.

According to Airbus, TAP has a total of twenty-two A321neo on order of which twelve are Long Range variants. Thus far, TAP has taken delivery of six standard-variant A321neo.

TAP plans to use the LR's increased maximum take-off weight (MTOW) and additional fuel tanks to launch flights to secondary cities in Brazil the east coast of the United States and Canada, as well as Africa.

Preliminary schedule data shows the LR will be used to run flights from Porto to New York Newark and from Lisbon to Washington Dulles later this summer for example.

Airbus Updates No.2098

Aer Lingus Airbus A321LRs Delayed

LONDON – Irish Carrier Aer Lingus has announced that its Airbus A321LR aircraft have been delayed.

This means that the carrier will now have to postpone the launch of its new Dublin to Montreal service back until summer 2020 after it was originally due to start on August 8.

In addition to the delay in the delivery the carrier also announced that it would be reducing frequency on four of their transatlantic routes over July, with Dublin to Philadelphia, Minneapolis-St Paul, Connecticut and Shannon to JFK all seeing a reduction in-flight services.

A spokesperson told the Irish Independent: “We are still expecting the first two aircraft to be ready for commercial operation in late summer, with the other two scheduled to arrive later in 2019.”

“As there is no equivalent aircraft to the A321LR neo in the market at the moment, leasing in an aircraft on a short-term basis was not deemed suitable.”

While the delay is not ideal it would appear that it will not affect the airline’s plans to continue to expand its transatlantic fleet with up to 30 aircraft by 2023.

Dublin Airport has started to become a gateway into North American destinations from Europe ever since the BREXIT vote.

When the airline held an event in January to launch their new livery after Joining IAG the airlines COO Mike Rutter said: “The airlines new business model would see 50 per cent of its passenger using Dublin as a connecting gateway to North America from Europe.”

The airline chose the A321LR specifically for the transatlantic operations and in doing so, replacing its Boeing 757s and Airbus A330 over time.

It will produce better efficiencies than the current long-haul modes of operation.

It will no doubt produce the same level of reliability and success that Arkia Israel Airlines have had with the A321LR.

All in all, it would appear that despite the possibility of another delivery delay for the A321LR that Aer Lingus is in a position where they can weather out the delay.

Whilst it will cause disruption, it remains clear that demand for the Aer Lingus product with this new aircraft variant on the way remains strong to deliver.

Airbus Updates No.1987

Israel's Arkia adds first A321neo(LR)

Arkia Israel Airlines A321-200NX © Airbus

14.11.2018 - 04:23 UTC

Arkia Israeli Airlines (IZ, Tel Aviv Ben Gurion) has taken delivery of its first, and the world's first, A321neo(LR) following the handing over of 4X-AGH (msn 8517) on Tuesday, November 13.

On lease from the Aviation Capital Group, the twinjet was subsequently ferried from Hamburg Finkenwerder to the Israeli carrier's Tel Aviv Ben Gurion base.

Arkia has a total of three A321neo(LR) due to deliver from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) with second due in December while a third will arrive in April 2019. They will all be are powered by CFM International LEAP-1A motors feature 220 seats in a single-class configuration.

According to schedule data, the aircraft is tentatively due to make its commercial debut on December 9 with flights from Tel Aviv to each of Eilat Ovda Int'l and Barcelona El Prat. Thereafter, effective December 17, it will start London Stansted flight followed by Paris CDG three days later. In the longterm, it intends to use the type's longhaul capabilities to serve Zanzibar as well as to open up new routes to destinations such as Goa Dabolim in India.

Aside from the A321neo(LR), Arkia also operates one B757-300, two E190s, three E195s, one B767-300(ER) (wet-leased from Neos), and one B737-800 (wet-leased from Travel Service Airlines).

It also has two A330-900s due to deliver in 2020. These will be deployed on flights to New York JFK.