American Airlines is preparing to take delivery of its very first Airbus A321XLR, making it the first US carrier to get one of these jets. However, don’t expect to see these swanky planes flying with passengers anytime soon…
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American has 50 Airbus A321XLRs on order
In 2019, American placed an order for 50 Airbus A321XLR aircraft. For those not familiar with the A321XLR, this is the world’s longest range narrow body jet in production. This aircraft is based on the Airbus A321 family, but features even more incremental range improvements over the A321neo and A321LR (which already have more range than the A321ceo).
Many airline executives view the A321XLR as an exciting plane that can open up long and thin routes that couldn’t necessarily be served by wide body jets. The A321XLR is both a blessing and curse for passengers, and I’ve reviewed the Aer Lingus A321XLR and Iberia A321XLR (the two airlines were the launch customer for the aircraft).
Initially, American was supposed to start taking delivery of A321XLRs in 2023. Heck, the airline was actually already supposed to have most of these jets — the initial plan called for eight A321XLRs in 2023, 20 in 2024, and 20 in 2025. However, due to delays with aircraft certification, that’s not how it played out.
As reported by JonNYC, now the expectation is that American will take delivery of its very first A321XLR on Tuesday, July 29, 2025, so that’s just days away.
AA: First XLR delivery is scheduled for 7/29 and will be going to Czech Republic for storage
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) July 24, 2025 at 4:30 PM
American A321XLR flights will be delayed by interiors
Once American takes delivery of its first Airbus A321XLR, it unfortunately won’t be flying to the United States, but will instead be flown to Czechia, where it will go into storage. Why would American put a brand new plane into storage? Well, interiors…
AA: First XLR delivery is scheduled for 7/29 and will be going to Czech Republic for storage
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) July 24, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Due to supply chain issues, the seats for these planes aren’t ready. That’s of course especially frustrating when you consider that these planes are two years behind schedule. Still, it’s a common industry problem, so it’s hardly unique to American. For example, Delta has taken delivery of A321neos for which it plans a premium layout, and those planes were also put straight into storage.
Even once the seats are ready, the seats will need to be certified, etc. Currently the hope is that the plane will be flying with passengers by the end of 2025, though I’d assume that’s optimistic at this point. Whatever timeline is given in the airline industry, just double it, and assume that’s a best case scenario (unless we’re talking about Lufthansa, in which case you should quintuple the timeline).
What to expect from American’s A321XLRs
American’s Airbus A321XLRs will be in a three-cabin layout, with business class, premium economy, and economy. The planes will feature 20 business class seats and 12 premium economy seats, so they’ll be pretty premium.
The A321XLRs will get different seats than American’s wide body aircraft, since the requirements for seats are different for narrow bodies. American will be installing herringbone seats in a 1-1 configuration in business class, almost identical to JetBlue’s Airbus A321LR Mint cabin (of course with different finishes).
Premium economy also looks pretty elegant, as it will be in a 2-2 configuration, similar to domestic first class. The seats look like they’re along the same lines of Delta’s Airbus A321neo first class seats.
As far as routes go, American is taking an interesting strategy with these planes. The initial batch of planes are expected to operate premium transcontinental routes that are currently flown by American’s special A321T subfleet. Those planes are starting to be reconfigured into a standard domestic layout, and American will temporarily fly 777s on some of those flights.
After that, you can expect American to start flying A321XLRs on some international routes that are long and thin. I’d expect them to primarily fly out of the Northeast — likely New York (JFK) and Philadelphia (PHL) — to Europe.
Bottom line
In the coming days, American will take delivery of its first Airbus A321XLR. However, the plane will simply be entering storage, as it awaits seats, which are delayed. The current estimate is that the plane will start operating commercial flights around the end of the year, though I wouldn’t count on that.
What do you make of American’s upcoming A321XLR deliveries?
Is supply chain issues still a thing after all these years? It is hard to believe.
1-1 configuration business class does not sound too bad, but the price is unlikely to be worth it for a few hours trip.
Philly to Dubrovnik. AA announced that route just before covid hit. AA then got rid of all the planes that could fly “thin” routes like that. 5 years later AA is an ULCC carrier. What bad management can do, is a shame.
What sorts of new routes do you think could be opened up by this jet, Ben? Do any immediately come to mind? Or could it just be used for revivals of routes that were axed during COVID?
@ Steve Carter -- I think COVID route revivals are most likely, or perhaps making some routes year-round that are otherwise seasonal.
It's really hard to know what American will do, given that the carrier can't seemingly maintain a consistent strategy for very long. But maybe we could see destinations like BER, RAK, etc.
That's what I was thinking, Ben. Could MAN return in some form? I remember your surprise at the MAN-PHL route being cut too (that being said, going back even further, I remember how surprised you were that AA had 4 daily flights to Manchester - at that time JFK, ORD, CLT, and PHL...these are long gone). Irony is that AA used to use A333s on the MAN-PHL route (which looked like beached whales at MAN...
That's what I was thinking, Ben. Could MAN return in some form? I remember your surprise at the MAN-PHL route being cut too (that being said, going back even further, I remember how surprised you were that AA had 4 daily flights to Manchester - at that time JFK, ORD, CLT, and PHL...these are long gone). Irony is that AA used to use A333s on the MAN-PHL route (which looked like beached whales at MAN Terminal 3), as it was basically a corporate charter for AstraZeneca.
American needs these into service by April. It’s just odd that they are going to be using these for transcon service given that they have a321neos on order which they could use for transcons.
The primary reason AA will use these planes for both international and transcon service is that they really have no need for 50 narrow body long haul aircraft.
What routes to Europe? Dublin or can they make Barcelona now year round from JFK if they swap the 322xlr?
Why does AA want to brand this as Business and PE, when the A321Ts they are phasing out have virtually similar interiors but branded as First and Business? They could very well keep the same names for these classes and charge a bit more, no?
@ Daniel from Finland -- It's an excellent question, broadly. Now, keep in mind that the cabins aren't quite the same, as business class on the A321Ts has flat beds, while these planes don't have flat beds in premium economy.
Internationally, I'd say the branding is correct, and in line with the competition.
However, in premium transcon markets, I can't help but think that American will see a revenue drip, replacing 10 first class seats...
@ Daniel from Finland -- It's an excellent question, broadly. Now, keep in mind that the cabins aren't quite the same, as business class on the A321Ts has flat beds, while these planes don't have flat beds in premium economy.
Internationally, I'd say the branding is correct, and in line with the competition.
However, in premium transcon markets, I can't help but think that American will see a revenue drip, replacing 10 first class seats and 20 business class seats with 20 business class seats and 12 premium economy seats.
I didn't know Delta flat beds A321Neos are also in storage.
“However, don’t expect to see these swanky planes flying with passengers anytime soon…“
Ben I would tone down the verbiage here. There is nothing ‘swanky’ associated with American Airlines. LOL
The 773s were to be pulled from the fleet for retrofit during low season. 772s and XLRs would cover the long-haul routes. To be clear, the XLRs would initially be deployed on long-haul routes and not transcon routes. Now, AA will rely solely on the 772s to back-fill the 773s. AND, we recently learned 772s will also back-fill transcon as T-Birds are pulled for retrofit. The network schedule has got to suffer. Mr. Znotins ain't dancing for joy anymore.
@ Lee -- Blah blah blah, who needs all this fancy 77W long haul and A321T flying, when you can instead have Oasis jets flying domestically from DFW and CLT? :p C'mon, it's AMERICAN Airlines, not Global Airlines. ;-)
My comment was not a complaint or a statement about quality. Rather, it was a statement that AA's fleet is under that much more pressure and network planning will be that much harder. That's all.
@ Lee -- I was just joking around in my response, sorry if that wasn't apparent. I 100% agree with you.
PS - I fly AA transcon. And, while I do fly in FF, I actually look forward to the XLRs entering service.
@ Lee it was the plan to initially deploy the XLRs on transcon routes, to be clear. Maybe now with Tariffs, AA will do what Delta has done and find a way to fly them international only until things blow over. It would be kind of cool if they launched like RAK-JFK or BER-JFK.