It’s a new era for Icelandair. The airline has just taken delivery of its first Airbus A320-family aircraft, meaning the carrier no longer exclusively operates Boeing jets.
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Icelandair acquiring four Airbus A321LRs
In 2023, Icelandair placed an order for 13 Airbus A321XLRs, which is Airbus’ new long range, narrow body jet. The plane makes sense for Icelandair, which needs the range to operate some of its longer flights, as it eventually retires its Boeing 757s. While Icelandair is otherwise relying on the Boeing 737 MAX for fleet renewal, the aircraft doesn’t quite have the same range.
The catch with the Airbus A321XLR is that Icelandair will only take delivery of its first of these aircraft in 2029. In the interim, Icelandair intends to lease four Airbus A321LRs, which are a slightly shorter range version of that aircraft.
We’ve known that the airline planned to take delivery of these jets before the end of 2024, and there’s now an update. Icelandair has today taken delivery of its first A321LR, which has the registration code TF-IAA. The plane took its 3hr18min delivery flight today, from Hamburg (XFW) to Reykjavik (KEF).
As was first flagged by Ishrion Aviation, Icelandair has loaded the A321LR into the schedule, and service is expected to start in a week:
- The A321LR will first fly from Keflavik (KEF) to Copenhagen (CPH) and Stockholm (ARN), as of December 10, 2024
- The first North America destination will be Toronto (YYZ) as of May 1, 2025, while the first United States destination will be Seattle (SEA) as of May 7, 2025
What to expect onboard Icelandair’s Airbus A321LR
Icelandair’s Airbus A321LRs are equipped with 187 seats, including 22 business class seats and 165 economy class seats. Icelandair’s business class is more like domestic first class within the United States (or premium economy on international flights), and that isn’t changing with the A321LR.
Icelandair’s A321LR business class has the Geven Comoda seat, with a respectable 42-43″ of pitch, 8″ of recline, and leg and foot rests. So this does represent a nice improvement over what you’ll find on the rest of the carrier’s fleet, though it’s evolutionary rather than revolutionary. 
Economy is in the typical 3-3 configuration. There are seat back entertainment screens throughout the cabin, and for the first time ever, Icelandair is offering high speed Viasat Wi-Fi, which is also an exciting development.
Bottom line
Icelandair has just taken delivery of its first of four Airbus A321LR aircraft, and the airline plans to start commercial flights with the plane next week. The A321LR will initially fly to Copenhagen and Stockholm, before making its North America debut in the spring of 2025.
Don’t expect a radically different experience onboard the A321LR compared to Icelandair’s existing 737 MAX aircraft. However, business class should be a bit more spacious, which is nice, and there’s also high speed Wi-Fi.
What do you make of Icelandair adding the Airbus A321LR to its fleet?
I hope they order more of them! The service was decent and the food was surprisingly good! They also have some interesting drink selections. The seats, however, disappointing, though what’s more disappointing are the 737MAXs… FI currently has 2 maxes and a 767 on Boston, whats going to happen after the 767 gets retired? Three daily flights on a 321 (or a mix of that and the maxes) seems to make more sense than adding an additional frequency on a max