Qantas A321XLR Makes International Debut, And Travelers Won’t Be Happy

Several months ago, Qantas started taking delivery of the Airbus A321XLR, a plane that the airline is using in a somewhat unusual way. Qantas is primarily intending for this plane to be used for domestic operations, to replace the Boeing 737-800. However, the airline is now already scheduling this aircraft on one rather long international flight, and I can’t imagine travelers will be happy about this.

Qantas Airbus A321XLR will fly from Brisbane to Manila

As of October 25, 2026, Qantas intends to operate daily nonstop flights between Brisbane (BNE) and Manila (MNL) on the Airbus A321XLR. Up until that point, the flight is operated 5x weekly by the Airbus A330-200. The 3,596-mile flight will operate with the following schedule:

QF97 Brisbane to Manila departing 2:00PM arriving 8:05PM
QF98 Manila to Brisbane departing 9:30PM arriving 7:25AM (+1 day)

The service is blocked at 8hr5min northbound and 7hr55min southbound.

This is interesting, as it’s the longest regularly scheduled narrow body route that Qantas has ever operated. Indeed, this is within range for the A321XLR, and perhaps Manila isn’t Qantas’ highest yield destination. But at the same time, it’s interesting to break from tradition here, as this plane really is designed for short and medium haul operations, based on the interior.

The Qantas A321XLR that will operate this route will boast 197 seats, including 20 business class seats and 177 economy class seats. There’s no seat back entertainment on these planes, but there is free Wi-Fi, at least. Perhaps the daytime flight in one direction isn’t so bad, but the redeye certainly doesn’t sound very pleasant.

This is an interesting direction for Qantas to take

I can of course understand wanting to match the right aircraft type to the right route in terms of demand and yields. The challenge is that this really counters what Qantas customers have been accustomed to. Even when it was possible, with few exceptions, Qantas hasn’t historically operated many routes to Asia with regionally configured aircraft.

What I also find interesting is that the forward cabin is still being marketed as business class, rather than premium economy. In fairness, US carriers also fly two-cabin aircraft on some longer international flights, and sometimes the forward cabin is marketed as business class. However, we have also seen carriers market the forward cabin as premium economy on longer flights.

With this aircraft swap and far inferior product, Qantas isn’t lowering fares for business class. You’ll see that the fare is the same on October 24, when it’s still operated by an A330 with flat beds…

…as it is on October 25, when it’s operated by an A321XLR with recliners.

I have to imagine that deploying the A321XLR to Manila is a bit of a test, to see to what extent customers will tolerate this, vs. booking away and flying another airline instead. This is an interesting first route on which to try this, as the only competitor is Philippine Airlines, with its A321neos featuring flat beds. I suspect that with an Australia point-of-sale, there’s a strong preference for Qantas over Philippine Airlines.

Bottom line

Qantas will begin flying its new Airbus A321XLR on some longer international flights. As of late October 2026, the Brisbane to Manila route will be downgraded from an A330 to an A321neo, though frequencies will be increased. Despite the aircraft change, the airline will keep charging the same business class fares, even though passengers will get recliners without seat back entertainment, compared to flat beds.

What do you make of Qantas’ evolving A321XLR strategy?