Last week, American Airlines’ very first Airbus A321XLR landed in the United States, after being delivered from Hamburg. Within a day, the airline put its first domestic A321XLR route on sale, and now the airline has revealed its second A321XLR route…
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American A321XLR will fly as of December 2025
American Airlines plans to begin commercial Airbus A321XLR operations as of December 18, 2025. Initially, the plane will fly between New York (JFK) and Los Angeles (LAX). The exact flights operated by the plane vary, but the A321XLR will operate the 2,475-mile route up to twice daily.
As of now, the plane is scheduled on the route through February 11, 2026, though I imagine that has the potential to be extended. When booking, you’ll see this aircraft scheduled on certain frequencies, with the A321XLR being designated as the “32Q.”
American has also now announced the international debut for this plane. Between March 8 and October 24, 2026, American plans to operate daily seasonal flights between New York and Edinburgh (EDI). This 3,255-mile flight will complement American’s seasonal Edinburgh service out of Philadelphia (PHL), which is operated by the Boeing 787. The schedule hasn’t yet been revealed, but I imagine the flight will go on sale this coming weekend.
This route shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. We knew that American wanted to use the A321XLR to add more transatlantic routes out of New York, and Edinburgh was one of the airports that was named as a possibility. American has been working on training pilots for A321XLR transatlantic operations, as that requires a special certification.
What the American A321XLR means for customers
American’s Airbus A321XLRs are in a three cabin configuration, with a total of 155 seats. This includes 20 business class seats, 12 premium economy seats, and 123 economy seats.
At the front of the plane, you’ll find 20 business class seats in a 1-1 configuration. The A321XLRs have different seats than American’s wide body aircraft, since the requirements for seats are different for narrow bodies. Expect this to be very similar to JetBlue’s Airbus A321LR Mint cabin (of course with different finishes).
Premium economy also looks pretty elegant, as it’s in a 2-2 configuration, similar to domestic first class. The seats are along the same lines of Delta’s Airbus A321neo first class seats.
In the market between New York and Los Angeles, American will be replacing the A321Ts with the A321XLRs (as American is reconfiguring A321Ts into a standard domestic configuration). As a reminder, the A321Ts have 102 seats, including 10 first class seats, 20 business class seats, and 72 economy seats.
In other words, with the transition from the A321T to the A321XLR, American will be losing 10 first class seats, retaining 20 business class seats, adding 12 premium economy seats, and adding 51 economy seats.
So essentially losing 10 first class seats to gain 12 premium economy seats and 51 economy seats is a decent tradeoff (especially since first class was often full of upgrades and employees). And perhaps more important is that the business class product will also be improved compared to what it currently is.
Meanwhile for transatlantic operations, the A321XLR represents a new lowest capacity long haul aircraft for the airline, which should make some new markets possible (like New York to Edinburgh!).
Bottom line
American Airlines’ Airbus A321XLR will enter service as of December 2025, initially flying between New York and Los Angeles, with up to two daily frequencies. Then as of March 2026, the plane will make its international debut, flying between New York and Edinburgh. There’s nothing too surprising here, though it’s cool to now see official plans for both transcon and transatlantic flights.
What do you make of American’s first A321XLR routes?
At the moment only 1 rotation is loaded: 06:05 LAX-JFK
03:30pm JFK LAX.
They don't plan it on the red-eye yet.
Aircraft utilisation is a bit low with only 12h of used time per day.
The transcon schedule also explains the 3 day gap between flights on the Scottish hop:
That plane would leave around 8pm and be back around 1pm+1. It could then fly the 3:30pm+1 transcon to LAX,...
At the moment only 1 rotation is loaded: 06:05 LAX-JFK
03:30pm JFK LAX.
They don't plan it on the red-eye yet.
Aircraft utilisation is a bit low with only 12h of used time per day.
The transcon schedule also explains the 3 day gap between flights on the Scottish hop:
That plane would leave around 8pm and be back around 1pm+1. It could then fly the 3:30pm+1 transcon to LAX, land before 7pm+1 spend 3 hours on the ground prior to operating the red-eye on the way back landing around 7am +2. Wait 4 hours on the ground to then operate the west bound transcon 11:00am to land again in JFK at 11pm +2 = 3 h after the EDI flight left.
It would then overnight in JFK (6h) to operate the first westbound flight at 6am+3 and land from the day return flight 6:40pm+3 finally in phase with the EDI flight.
Now you can duplicate this schedule 3 times with a day phase shift and réalise you can serve a couple of small TATL destinations but the other transcon frequencies don't suit themselves well to feeding TATL flights.
It appears the plane is there to upgrade the transcons and just explore on TATL but that's not where it will make money.
TAP uses it's LRs differently: they are sent around 1 feeder return flight as they wait for their TATL red-eye departure slot. Different business model.
How are upgrades going to work on these for status members? The 321T was nice in that while you wouldn’t get upgraded from economy to first, the upgrade to business was still lie flat. Are they going to do this like on international routes with SWUs where you would go straight from economy to business? Are they going to process upgrades from economy to PE?
Not really about the actual aircraft but is the USA the only country to actually have scheduled departure and arrival times down to the minute like departs at 10.43am and arrives at 2.16pm, I don't think I have ever seen a flight in any other country that does this, the same flight here would be scheduled for 10.45am to 2.15pm.
Good q. I have only seen this in the US too.
The domestic transcon PE pricing is interesting as it is more in line with a traditional domestic F fare - while the inflight service will mimic that of an F class flight from CLT-LAX perhaps - you are missing out on the "premium ground services" and F class if connecting to another flight. Anyways, interesting pricing and will be interested to see how it all plays out.
Just picked a random day to compare PE/domestic first seating - Friday January 16 - nonstop NYC-LAX one way- lowest fare by airline
Delta JFK-LAX $364 - PE
United EWR-LAX $542 - PE
AA JFK-LAX $642 - PE
Alaska EWR-LAX $609 - domestic first
I have no idea what it is in line with, but with that pricing, good luck AA...
Delta's not real PE - it's extra comfort. They're actually selling PE (Premium Select) for $1000+; On an old 767? - good luck w/ THAT! United does have one 6AM flight for $389...so that's not bad, but outside of that, prices are in line.
While the Premium Select fare is absurd, there's nothing wrong with Delta's 767s outside of Delta One. You have the best economy class and the best premium economy class in the fleet.
How is AA avoiding paying the absurd tariffs on these new aircraft? Are they taking Delta's approach?
If AA wants to continue its premium pivot, the LOPA on this plane is a big mistake in the back of the bus. The lack of MCE is loyalty killing. B6 is going to look like a very competitive airline in NYC 12 months from now whether or not they merge with UA. If AA really has 50 of these things on order, it's not too late to correct course to the UA XLR LOPA.
They should also have put one of the three rear lavs up front or mid-cabin. 20 business class passengers racing to use the single forward cabin lav after takeoff or right before landing will be a nightmare.
The AA website is showing 48 MCE, up from 30 on the 321T. Are you just saying the ratio is too low?
Not sure what you are looking at, but both of your stats are wrong.
The XLR has 12 MCE seats. Rows 14 and 15. Both exit rows.
The 321T has 36 MCE seats. Rows 11-16. One exit row.
@Sam - agree on the lavs.
30 flatbeds to 20 flatbeds is the more comparable stat from the 321T to XLR
I think the removing first and adding premium economy might not be the right way to think of it, nontwithstanding how AA brands the classes.
-They are increasing 1-1 herringbone seats from 10 to 20
-They are replacing 20 2-2 lie flats with 12 2-2 recliners
-They are increasing extra leg room economy 30 from to 48
-They are increasing regular leg room economy from 36 to 75
I don't know what...
I think the removing first and adding premium economy might not be the right way to think of it, nontwithstanding how AA brands the classes.
-They are increasing 1-1 herringbone seats from 10 to 20
-They are replacing 20 2-2 lie flats with 12 2-2 recliners
-They are increasing extra leg room economy 30 from to 48
-They are increasing regular leg room economy from 36 to 75
I don't know what the elimination of the First branded seats on board will do to Flagship dining, but the service in the First and Business class cabins on the 321Ts is pretty simliar (better FA to passenger ratio, soup) so that should be an upgrade for many. Given the increased capacity I wonder if they will cut frequencies on the transcons...
I hope they put it on JFK-SFO soon. The 321Ts are getting pretty tired.
"I don't know what the elimination of the First branded seats on board will do to Flagship dining..."
I was wondering about this, too. It was never brought back in LAX, and now at JFK Flagship Dining has been replaced by the shared Chelsea Lounge. My best guess is that the Chelsea Lounge will now close after the AM BA departure and reopen mid afternoon for the evening Transatlantic departures.
There are a few no-brainer XLR routes for AA like the transcons, EDI, MAN, SNN, and perhaps additional DUB service. The XLR's fuel and operational savings are substantial, the routes will not require additional crew / blocked seats, and AA is well-positioned in those markets as the OneWorld TATL JV carries the most O&D to the Isles, even from weaker AA markets like ORD and NYC.
I can also buy the thesis for extending seasonal...
There are a few no-brainer XLR routes for AA like the transcons, EDI, MAN, SNN, and perhaps additional DUB service. The XLR's fuel and operational savings are substantial, the routes will not require additional crew / blocked seats, and AA is well-positioned in those markets as the OneWorld TATL JV carries the most O&D to the Isles, even from weaker AA markets like ORD and NYC.
I can also buy the thesis for extending seasonal routes to year-round via the XLR even despite the need to potentially block a few seats for crew rest on JFK-CDG and MXP (current 1.5-month breaks), JFK-BCN, ORD-CDG, etc.
However, all of that gets me to ~25 frames (15 A321T frames replaced by XLRs, ~5 no-brainer route additions, ~5 route extensions). AA ordered 50 XLRs.
To me what will be interesting is what the rest of the XLRs do. Does AA launch transcons like BOS-SFO to replace AS dropping capacity? Does it continue with its rumored plans to re-launch routes like BOS-CDG? Does it extend routes like JFK-FCO to year-round? Enter routes like JFK-AMS, JFK-ZRH, or JFK-FRA (would need a Condor partnership IMO to be viable)? Shift routes like ORD-HNL to the XLR?
The XLR's premium configuration makes most secondary markets feel tough, and with the reported range underperformance, there are only so many potential destinations. I think ~35 XLRs would have been perfect for AA with the other 15 being widebody orders instead, but I guess we'll find out.
arent they gonna deploy them out of MIA to secondary SouthAm cities as well
Yes, but those will allegedly be to utilize aircraft that will open new TATL routes in the summers (e.g., use the EDI XLR for a MIA-BSB or something similar). So that will not require an additional frame.
I guess you could make that same argument on the ~5 new route XLRs and the ~5 that I thought could extend seasonal routes year-round, but then that would account for ~30 XLRs.
It’s wild that they are talking about becoming more premium yet they installed only the forced minimum(exit rows) of MCE on some of their most premium routes
Exciting! Under $1,500, one-way, lie-flat, for JFK-LAX, isn't too bad, either. Points redemptions are higher (+100K for Business on A321XLR, whereas it's 37.5K for Business and 50K for First on a321T).
Crazy, you'd think that AA would fly the 787 out of JFK and the A321XLR out of PHL, instead of the other way around. But AA's lack of strength at JFK is a real problem.
While I agree AA lacks strength at JFK, I would note DL itself primarily flies the B767-300 on JFK-EDI which has a capacity of 216 seats (26J). UA flies the B757-200 primarily on EWR-EDI which has a capacity of 176 seats (16J).
With its current widebody fleet, the lowest potential capacity AA could fly from JFK to EDI would be the B787-8 which has 234 seats (20J). That's more capacity than UA from EWR and...
While I agree AA lacks strength at JFK, I would note DL itself primarily flies the B767-300 on JFK-EDI which has a capacity of 216 seats (26J). UA flies the B757-200 primarily on EWR-EDI which has a capacity of 176 seats (16J).
With its current widebody fleet, the lowest potential capacity AA could fly from JFK to EDI would be the B787-8 which has 234 seats (20J). That's more capacity than UA from EWR and DL from JFK today which feels excessive. 155 seats is perhaps a tad bit low, but with 20J and 12 PE the premium mix is right (only 16 PE seats fewer than the B787-8). With the operational savings IMO AA is better placed using the XLR for this route from JFK vs a B787.
PHL also likely has more connecting traffic to feed to EDI. JFK has competition with DL and at EWR with UA as Jeremy pointed out. I do think when more 321XLRs come on board, PHL-EDI will go to the airbus, freeing up the 788 for something longer and more lucrative.
Side note the PE pricing JFK-LAX...the product isn't 6-7x nicer than economy. Yikes.
There’s going to be some serious logo bingo on the EDI flight. More Merion and Philly Cricket logos than you can count.