Well this is interesting. We know that United Airlines will soon start taking delivery of Airbus A321XLRs, which will have the carrier’s most luxurious narrow body interiors to date. Those planes will specifically be operating long haul, international flights, primarily across the Atlantic.
What’s coming as more of a surprise is that United is also seemingly shortly taking delivery of a new subfleet of Airbus A321neos, which will specifically be used for premium transcontinental flights, as flagged by JonNYC.
United plans fleet of 161-seat premium Airbus A321neos
United is acquiring a massive number of Airbus A321neos, as the airline eventually expects to have over 175 of these planes in its fleet. Up until now, these planes have all had a pretty standard domestic configuration, with 200 seats, including 20 first class seats and 180 economy class seats.
However, one of United’s upcoming Airbus A321neo deliveries seems to be the start of something new (and just to be perfectly clear, this isn’t an A321XLR). The plane with the registration code N94750 is expected to be the first “Coastliner” A321neo, which is United’s plan to introduce a new subfleet of premium domestic aircraft.
Here’s what we can reportedly expect:
- The airline is rumored to be planning on flying 40 of these aircraft, which is quite a big fleet, with the code “A321LF”
- The planes are expected to feature 161 seats, including 20 business class seats (1-1 configuration), 12 premium economy seats (2-2 configuration), and 129 economy class seats (3-3 configuration)
- As a point of comparison, United’s A321XLRs will feature 150 seats, including 20 business class seats, 12 premium economy seats, and 118 economy class seats
- I would expect that the United A321XLRs and A321neos will have virtually identical business class and premium economy cabins, and that the difference will be in economy (below is the A321XLR seat map)
- It’s logical that economy will be a bit denser on the A321neos, presumably with a bit less legroom, and smaller galleys, since there’s no need for hot meals in economy on those flights
Let me emphasize that United hasn’t actually officially announced anything yet, so I imagine some sort of a reveal is imminent. The airline has recently been hinting that it has some passenger experience announcements coming in the near future, so it’s anyone’s guess if this might be one of those.
This is a smart, sensible direction for United to take
It’s interesting that we’re only now learning about these plans, and not even officially. Going back almost a decade, United executives made it clear that they planned to configure some latest generation narrow body aircraft with flat beds.
At the time, the plan was for Boeing 737 MAX 10s to get these premium configurations, and to be used for transcontinental routes. However, with the plane still not certified, it seems likely that United has now just decided to do this on the A321neo, since the airline is tired of waiting.
Presumably these premium A321neos won’t just replace United’s aging Boeing 757-200s in some premium markets, but will also replace wide body aircraft that currently operate flights across the country (freeing them up for United to get even more of an edge with its long haul network).
A fleet of 40 planes is massive, and should easily cover around 60 roundtrip coast-to-coast flights per day, conservatively. So of course these planes will fly from Newark (EWR) to Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO). Don’t be surprised to also eventually see these out of Boston (BOS), and also out of New York (JFK), given the deal between JetBlue and United (if that fully materializes). I do wonder if United has something further up its sleeve, because it seems there’s some additional capacity.
Here’s the other thing I find interesting — I think it’s smart that United is actually creating a dedicated subfleet of premium transcontinental aircraft, as that’s quite a contrast to what’s happening at American. American is acquiring 50 Airbus A321XLRs, and plans to use those both for premium transcontinental and for long haul international flights.
To me that seems like a strategic blunder. Using the carrier’s order of 50 A321XLRs for both domestic and international flights greatly limits American’s ability to grow, both in international markets (which is so overdue, given the premature aircraft retirements we saw at the airline at the start of the pandemic), and in premium transcontinental markets.
It’s another area where American is falling behind before it even starts with a strategy, and will lose more market share to United.
For what it’s worth, Delta is also planning a subfleet of Airbus A321neos with flat beds, which will also be used for premium transcontinental flights. Delta is only expected to operate a fleet of 21 of these planes, so that’s about half the size of United’s fleet of premium aircraft. On top of that, Delta’s situation has been a bit of a mess, as the airline seemingly can’t get cabins certified, and some planes have now been parked for around a year.
The situation at Delta is so bad that the airline plans to start flying these planes with 44 first class seats in other markets, since it’s not sure about the timeline with which seats can be certified.
Bottom line
While there hasn’t yet been an official announcement, United seems to be planning a special subfleet of “Coastliner” Airbus A321neos, which will operate in premium transcontinental markets. The planes are expected to feature 161 seats, and much like the A321XLRs, will have 20 flat beds in business class, and 12 premium economy seats.
We’ve known that United wanted to introduce flat beds on some new generation narrow body aircraft. While the initial plan was for this to happen on the Boeing 737 MAX 10, the certification issues have caused United to go with Airbus planes instead.
What do you make of United’s “Coastliner” A321neo plans?
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