A while back, I covered how Qatar Airways was planning on adding all-economy aircraft to its fleet, in an incredibly dense configuration, no less. While it was clear this was happening, we weren’t sure of what the backstory was. Well, now we know…
In this post:
Qatar Airways has lots of Airbus A321neos on order
Qatar Airways has quite the narrow body fleet renewal and expansion planned, as the airline has a total of 50 Airbus A321-family aircraft on order, directly with the aircraft manufacturer. This includes an order for 40 A321neos and 10 A321LRs (they’re the same planes, just with different range).
The idea is that this will open up all kinds of new markets for the airline, especially as the carrier is reportedly planning a premium experience on these planes, including business class suites with doors (something along the lines of Qsuites).
As many people may remember, there has been quite a bit of drama when it comes to these planes entering service. By now, Qatar Airways was already supposed to have a large number of these Airbus planes in its fleet. However, due to the dispute between Airbus and Qatar Airways several years back (under former CEO Akbar Al Baker), Airbus canceled this order.
Qatar Airways even went so far as to order Boeing 737 MAXs instead. However, the two companies then made up, and Qatar Airways ended up canceling its Boeing 737 MAX order, as its Airbus A321neo order was reinstated. However, the airline lost its original delivery slots, so is getting these planes much later than initially planned, with deliveries currently expected to start as of some point in 2026.
But here’s where it gets interesting — Qatar Airways is now taking delivery of some more A321neos, and the first of these planes just joined the fleet. These have nothing to do with the original order, so what’s the story?
Qatar Airways will start flying mono-class A321neos shortly
As of October 2025, Qatar Airways plans to commence Airbus A321neo operations, but not with any of the planes that were initially ordered. Specifically, the airline plans to fly these planes from Doha (DOH) to Madinah (MED), Multan (MUX), Peshawar (PEW), Sharjah (SHJ), Sialkot (SKT), and Tbilisi (TBS).
Here’s what makes this strange, though. These A321neos are in a 236-seat layout, with no premium cabin. Not only is this an all-economy layout, but these are some really tight cabins. Just for context, Wizz Air has 239 seats on its A321neos, while Transavia has 232 seats on its A321neos. So Qatar Airways has more seats on these planes that some ultra low cost carriers, which have 28-29″ of pitch.
So, what’s actually going on here? The oneworld carrier is picking up six A321neos that were initially intended for AirAsia, and they’ll all be in this same layout. Qatar Airways views this as a way to boost capacity in some markets that have a lot of economy demand, but not a lot of premium demand.
The first of these planes has just been delivered to Doha, and has the registration code A7-AJB. Of note is that the plane is in an all-white livery, so I’m curious if it now gets painted, or if the airline will intentionally keep the plane without an identity, to distance it a bit from the brand.
One logical question is why AirAsia isn’t taking delivery of these A321neos, given that the airline is growing at a fast pace, and has hundreds of these on orders. I’m not exactly sure what’s causing these planes to not join the AirAsia fleet, given that they’re brand new, and configured for the carrier. I know the airline swapped some A321neo orders for A321LR orders in the past, so perhaps the timeline made these available to another airline, or something.
Presumably the AirAsia interiors are being maintained here, in which case you can expect very limited pitch, no seat back entertainment, etc. On the plus side, at least there seem to be USB-C plugs and personal device holders, which I guess is better than nothing?
Ultimately I’m surprised to see Qatar Airways operating flights in a configuration like this. Sure, not all routes have the same amount of premium demand, but most routes have at least some premium demand, and Qatar Airways wants to be able to compete for those passengers.
Furthermore, you’d think there would be some brand dilution from having travelers board this kind of plane, when they’re expecting a more typical Qatar Airways experience.
Oman Air has a similar concept now, flying all-economy 737s, under its Oman Air Connect brand. Meanwhile Emirates and Etihad don’t have this directly, though Dubai-based FlyDubai has some all-economy 737s, while Etihad joint venture partner Air Arabia Abu Dhabi also has an all-economy fleet.
Bottom line
Qatar Airways has just taken delivery of its very first Airbus A321neo. This isn’t part of the 50 narrow body Airbus jets the airline has on order, but instead, we’re seeing a subfleet of six all-economy planes added to the fleet, which were initially intended for AirAsia.
These planes will offer a very un-Qatar Airways experience, so I’m curious what long term place these aircraft have in the fleet. Admittedly there are huge seat certification delays, so one wonders if these planes might eventually be retrofitted with new cabins.
What do you make of this Qatar Airways Airbus A321neo situation?
Makes perfect sense for short flights that have high demand. Perhaps it will pbe priced accordingly.
Most of the Pakistani airports listed are all B tier airports (for Pakistan) so it makes sense to fly all economy. Any flight worth flying business would be to a bigger hub like the capital or Lahore/Karachi. I say this as somebody from Pak.
@Ben: I hope you correct the title from Airbus 321neo to Airbus A321neo. I certainly don’t expect you to write “Boeing B787” or “Airbus 350”, the stickler for detail that you are!
Stop gaslighting Ben and visualise yourself flying Airbus with the letter A or something of that kind! ;)
This configuration is to tap into the lower end of the labour market. Air India Express has been focused only on this for the last many years, connecting Tier 2 cities in India to the Middle East, and only recently started domestic flights.
That was my thought as well. I hope these laborers are allowed to keep their passports and return home at their own volition.
Oh, I'm sure they're sold the streets-paved-with-gold narrative like they all are, only to discover they're virtually slaves once they've arrived. I have no idea why anyone keeps promoting these shithole countries run by despotic religious fanatics. Their depravity has long been common knowledge in the West.
Those appear to be USB-A outlets to me.
@Ben, to your last point re other carriers in the region that have a similar concept, it seems like Etihad is wet leasing some economy only A320s from GetJet Air for regional flights as well. Will be used for AMM, BEY, CAI, MCT, etc. I received an email two days ago that my MCT AUH seat for a Nov flight was downgraded from C to Y.
My flight from MCT is the same, but I haven't received an email yet. However, the (paid) seat selection and lounge access have been canceled without comment. It's only an hour-long flight, but since the flight is at 5:30 a.m., a coffee and croissant in the lounge would be nice. Etihad is introducing First Class on the new A321LR and on the other hand getting a wet lease without C...
"Madinah (MED), Multan (MUX), Peshawar (PEW), Sharjah (SHJ), Sialkot (SKT), and Tbilisi (TBS)".
Oh Lucky, these seem like very low premium travel destinations - MED is for umrah/Hajj & SKT is .. in Bangladesh.
So of course they'll not feature a premium class.
Why don't you be a good boy & find out why AirAsia (after all the dramatic orders at Singapore or Paris Air Show) canceled on these A321LR?
OK?
p/s Air Asia sucks & Fernandes is so cringe.
Did you mean this post to sound quite so patronising?
SKT is in Pakistan..
Forgive me if I don't fully trust analysis of passenger profiles from someone who thinks that Sialkot is a city...in Bangladesh.
“Of note is that the plane is in an all-white livery, so I’m curious if it now gets painted, or if the airline will intentionally keep the plane without an identity, to distance it a bit from the brand.”
Really Lucky, this is a bit of a dumb statement. The 236 (head of livestock) people inside the plane ought to know exactly what airline they boarded. Meanwhile the people outside staring at a boring white...
“Of note is that the plane is in an all-white livery, so I’m curious if it now gets painted, or if the airline will intentionally keep the plane without an identity, to distance it a bit from the brand.”
Really Lucky, this is a bit of a dumb statement. The 236 (head of livestock) people inside the plane ought to know exactly what airline they boarded. Meanwhile the people outside staring at a boring white plane have no way of counting the seats inside of it, would they?
@ Herb_Repozo -- You can disagree with me, but you don't have to call it a dumb statement. ;) Nowadays we see a ton of wet lease operations at major airlines, whereby you see these kinds of all-white or non-standard liveries.
I think there's almost a benefit to that, from a branding perspective. Most of these flights will depart from remote stands, and people will see the exterior as they board. I think there's something...
@ Herb_Repozo -- You can disagree with me, but you don't have to call it a dumb statement. ;) Nowadays we see a ton of wet lease operations at major airlines, whereby you see these kinds of all-white or non-standard liveries.
I think there's almost a benefit to that, from a branding perspective. Most of these flights will depart from remote stands, and people will see the exterior as they board. I think there's something to be said for a non-standard paint scheme, which will reinforce for passengers that it's a non-standard experience.
I didn't say that this is definitely what's going on, but planes are usually painted before they're delivered from Airbus, so let's see if the plane gets a paint job in the next couple of weeks, or if it enters service with this livery.
No different than a “United” E145.
@ James -- I don't think United and Qatar are on the same level, but I hear you. ;-)
Flight review by Lucky?
:)
Why is this terrible? Can it not be interpreted as being responsive to market-specific, customer-specific demand?
@ Lee -- I don't think anyone used the word "terrible." The point is, Qatar Airways isn't suddenly lowering its fares in these markets, and will certainly offer less of an experience than before.
No one said "terrible" but some will interpret it as such. I think few people in the hobby will be crestfallen as a result of this. Having family living in the area and based on their recounting of society there, I see these routes as shuttling non-native base laborers between Doha and their respective homelands. Given the cattle car seating, yes, it's a decline in service level. But, we see other carriers doing something similar.
@ Lee -- "Given the cattle car seating, yes, it's a decline in service level. But, we see other carriers doing something similar."
Then we're on the same page. I'd similarly write about this if it happened at another airline. I think it's interesting, and I think it obviously represents a decline in service. I'm not suggesting this is the end of the world, or anything major.
The annoying thing is that this isn't the first time QR are doing this as their partnership with Indigo means that they already have all economy flights to India.
It's not like they even fly those indigo planes to tier 2 cities to boost demand, more than half of the frequencies to Mumbai get them!
I guess the difference here is that these will be actual QR flights so the interesting thing to...
The annoying thing is that this isn't the first time QR are doing this as their partnership with Indigo means that they already have all economy flights to India.
It's not like they even fly those indigo planes to tier 2 cities to boost demand, more than half of the frequencies to Mumbai get them!
I guess the difference here is that these will be actual QR flights so the interesting thing to see will be if they reconfigure the plane once they have their order fulfilled by Airbus.
Not any more. 6E returned all its 737 MAXes to QR in August 2025, and they were put into long-term storage — with the exception of A7-BSG, which moved to fellow Oneworld carrier Royal Air Maroc as CN-RHI. As a result, QR no longer has all-economy flights to India.
I wonder why QR never launched a low-cot subsidiary: Etihad has Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, Saudia has flyadeal, etc.