British Airways Take Delivery Of Their First A321neo

Simple Flying

By Nicholas Cummins

Published Nov 27, 2018

Just as one chapter closes with British Airways, another opens.

Yesterday they said goodbye to their last Boeing 767, but recently they have welcomed their new Airbus A321neo.

[ege_cards_related id="7"]

What can we expect from the British Airways Airbus A321neo?

British Airways already operates 18 Airbus A321-200's in a European style format (2-classes) or a domestic version with one class throughout (Economy, although British Airways does operate an all business class A318 flight from London City airport to New York). Their current fleet can sit around 200 passengers in its more denser version, but the new A321neo is pushing that capacity up to 235 passengers in one class, 3-3 configuration!

This means that their future A321neo fleet of 10 jets (To be delivered throughout 2019) will have seating to match their A320neo's. There will be a Club Europe cabin on the plane but this is just economy with the middle seat blocked out with an improved soft product. The economy seats will have approx 29 inches of pitch between each seat (One inch smaller than Ryanair).

This makes sense as the jets will be used for short haul routes (such as over to Western Europe and Scandinavia) but also adds fuel to the fire that British Airways is 'downgrading' to compete with Norwegian and other low-cost carriers.

Airbus A321neo — British Airways has opted for the high density version.

If that was not enough, EasyJet has the A321neo and reportedly utilized the exact same cabin configuration as British Airways. So the idea that you will get more 'room' on a British Airways flight over a low-cost carrier truly is in the past.

There will also not be any seatback entertainment (unless its available by streaming).

But there are some advantages of flying a new plane...

First, the engines and cabin will be much quieter, up to 50% in some cases that will be a good thing for travelers. The cabin structure will also make pressurization more comfortable with additional humidity and warmth. These items are simple advancements of technology that beats out using a much older plane (such as the 30 year old 767 that was retired).

Additionally, the plane will be far more fuel efficient and a more versatile addition to the British Airways fleet, ultimately allowing them to be more competitive and offer lower prices for customers.