Airbus A321 - becoming an ace of trumps

The Airbus A321 is a medium-range passenger aircraft created by Airbus in the early 1990s on the basis of Airbus A320 and is part of the family. Unlike the medium-haul A320, the A321 is a version claiming longer routes, that for a long time have been occupied by the Boeing 757. However, this desire was limited by technical and corporate capabilities.

With the advent of the NEO generation, the situation has changed drastically, and the big brother, who was previously considered practically an outsider, may now become one of the foundations of Airbus commercial aviation. Let's see how it manages that.

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[jamesburleson]

I literally just flew on a Delta A-321 today, I was watching your A-320 video from 3 years ago while waiting to board.

[chuck]

Delta was extremely interested in the Boeing NMA even wanting to be the first operator. They wanted input on the design. Since that evaporated, I guess they have moved on to Airbus and the A321 and A321 NEO. They no longer have any Boeing Aircraft on order but plan to operate their refurbished B757 and B767-400s for the next few years. (They are awesome with the new interiors; I flew on both last month). Boeing screwed up more than the B737-MAX, they also forfeited Future Sales.

[militaryavr]

😂🤣😂🤣😂 “Look who’s talking you champions of safety…”

[letranger]

The 757 could have been the plane to modernize and build upon as it was newer than the 737. There was not much economics to benefit from without drastically changing the 737 physically. Airbus has in its DNA that ability to make changes on the planes it designs; from the beginning, versatility was all around, all the way to the luggage containers; flexibility was key in order to reduce the cost of operations whether for airfares, maintenance, repairs, or even the airports costs and insurance. I won’t be surprised if that philosophy inspired other entities outside aviation to evolve beyond their traditional business models.

[BehindForHours]

“Look who’s talking, you champions of safety” 😆😆😆😆😆😆😆

[stein]

Ah snap!! Sky does it again with another great production💯 Ty Sky and fast flights and soft landings to you too. 🙂

[jacobzimmermann]

Answering where this habit came from is very easy: since the A32x NEO proved to be very flexible, they can adapt it to serve a wide range of needs with a minimal investment and with no or minimal overhead costs to airlines. They would be mad not to take the money that's lying on the ground in front of them, especially since that strategy had mode than paid off by creating a massive headache for Boeing and virtually driving the COMAC out of the Western market before it was even released into production.

[hangonsnoop]

Of course to promote the aircraft they chose gorgeous Aeroflot stewardesses.

[darkdinochris]

Sky, I love your content! What ever happened to the Yak 42? You did a great job describing the Yak 40. I hoped you would follow it with the Yak 42. Please consider!

[lucrolland]

We now see Air Transat flying A321 from Montreal to Paris or Lyon. I would make a fleet of A220, A321 XLR and A350. Forget about the Max, this is like riding a revamped Belair in Cuba.

[burningphoneix]

Airbus Salesman: *Slaps roof of A321* This badboy can fit so many fuel tanks in it.

[vigodrakken]

Lol " Champions of Safety " 🤣 they deserve that.

[Musikur]

I think the next generation of clean sheet designs will aim for the size of the A321 with options down and up. The A220 has demonstrated the benefit of having a smaller dedicated aircraft, and the A321 size allows you to reach both the Small segment and the MMA

[ralphsmith]

4700 nautical miles is well over 8 hours endurance. 8 hours endurance is the maximum efficient endurance for a plane of this size. At any distance materially greater than 8 hours of flight time, two crews must be carried. In this setting, the optimum balance between seat cost and crew cost mandates a larger aircraft.
Airlines might be making enquiries about such a jet, but they aren't paying deposits. Routinely a paper order for an A321neo can be converted into an order for an A321ceo or even an A320ceo if desired. This is especially true if the new aircraft's performance falls short of expectations.

[EstorilEm]

I remember when market analysts (and even Airbus to an extent) thought that the XLR would be a niche aircraft. Much like they got screwed with the downfall of hub-spoke models and the A380, I think airlines complete investment in point-to-point has ironically handed Airbus an unexpected gift in remarkable XLR sales.

Again, this was supposed to be a niche aircraft.

Then again it was also strategic in that it forced Boeing’s hand with some sort of NMA solution.

[twiffrino]

The XLR is easily the biggest update to the airframe since 1988.

[albertusdrostable]

You're videos are alway a joy to watch! Beautiful videos, great stories.

[burntnougat]

They're basically milking the most out of the a32X fuselage for max market diversification in a point to point based route paradigm

[Pupda]

The information on the ACTs (Additional Center Tanks) at 08:10 is not correct, in that they are not unique to the NEOs. The two ACTs aft of the wing were an option on the -200 series that was taken up on virtually every aircraft; given that there were only about 90 A321-100 aircraft produced (and less than a dozen still in service) and that virtually every A321-200 has the two optional ACTs aft of the wing, for all practical purposes one can assume that all A321 CEOs have those two tanks.

Conversely the forward (third) ACT is not standard on the NEO but rather is an option for the A321LR model. American Airlines, which is the world’s largest operator of the A321, has about 45 A321 NEOs in service so far, none of which have the forward (third) ACT. American is also taking delivery of ETOPS A321 NEOs that may have the forward tank, but as best I know right now will not.

American Airlines A321 NEOs will not get increased fuel capacity over the standard A321 CEO until taking delivery of the XLR variant, which will have an even larger permanent Rear Center Tank in place of the two aft ACTs and which is roughly equivalent to four ACTs, or doubling the aft ACT fuel capacity, while the forward ACT will still remain available as an option.

After all that, the short version is: All 321s - CEO and NEO - have the two extra tanks behind the wing, while some NEOs may add the option of a third tank forward of the wing.

[invisibility]

The thing is, the A321 LR has somewhat wierd handling charactistics during landing, it likes to drop suddenly after retarding the throttle, also the auto-thrust is nowhere near as responsive as the CEO, during approches the speed is always off buy around 10 knots.of course pilots can learn to deal with the changes but these two factors combines sometimes makes it really quite difficult in windy conditions.The good thing about them is that the vls is 10 knots slower during approaches, so for most situations pilots prefer flying the CEO apart from approaches at high altittude airfields . By creating the A321 XLR the 320 palttform has reached its capability limit i'm afraid.