America Airlines Bets On Newer, Smaller Airbus Planes With New Deal

Airbus recently announced the newest addition to its catalog of commercial travel planes, and one of the biggest airlines has been quick to jump on the bandwagon.

According to a report from CNBC, American Airlines has agreed to a deal with Airbus to order the brand new Airbus A321XLR. Sources familiar with the deal also revealed this makes American Airlines the first U.S. airline to get the new plane and is ordering 50 to add to its fleet.

For anyone unfamiliar with the new plane, the XLR is designed to serve as a plane that is able to balance range and value in a way that’s beneficial to all. Airbus has touted the single-aisle aircraft will burn 30% less fuel per-seat than older and similarly designed planes. Because of this, airlines can use the XLR on routes that had typically been used “by larger and less efficient wide-body aircraft.”

Some of the routes Airbus lists as examples are India to Europe, China to Australia, or Continental Europe to the Americas. And Airbus has assured that the XLR will provide travelers the same quality of comfort as the wide-body equivalents.

It also represents the latest in a growing trend among airlines and plane manufacturers to move away from wide-body planes to smaller and more nimble planes that are capable of long-distance flights.

“You can use a narrowbody, a single-aisle plane going long distances and you can connect cities that had no possibility of connections with a good business case,” Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury told CNBC.

American Airlines is expected to get the first wave of the new plane ready for use by 2023.