Qantas Orders 28 Airbus A321XLR Aircraft for Fleet Renewal

Qantas is closer to expanding its fleet with the Airbus A321XLR, as the aircraft enters final assembly in Hamburg, Germany. Scheduled for delivery in April 2025, the new aircraft will play a key role in the airline’s fleet renewal, replacing Boeing 737s and enhancing the passenger experience.

Why are Qantas renewing their fleet?

Qantas are embarking on a historic fleet renewal, focusing on both narrow-body and wide-body aircraft over the next decade. These new aircraft are more fuel-efficient, produce less noise, and offer improved economics and range. This enables Qantas to explore new route opportunities. As part of this fleet upgrade, Qantas is collaborating with Airbus and Boeing on sustainable aviation fuels. These fuels have the capability to reduce emissions by up to 80%.

Qantas Group CEO, Vanessa Hudson, highlighted the importance of this milestone for the airline. She pointed out that these new aircraft are part of Qantas’ largest domestic fleet renewal, offering enhanced services to passengers while creating new job opportunities:

These new aircraft are part of the biggest domestic fleet renewal program in Qantas’ history, which is bringing significant improvements for customers and career opportunities for our people.

The A321XLR is a fantastic aircraft, which provides a more comfortable flight for customers and the longer range will in time give us the opportunity to explore more non-stop routes and operate them more efficiently.

New aircraft mean more jobs, training and promotion opportunities for our people and we’ll be training more than 240 pilots on the new aircraft over the next three years.

Qantas has ordered 28 Airbus A321XLR aircraft for its domestic fleet renewal. The aircraft will replace Boeing 737s on domestic routes and enable new direct flights within Australia and to short-haul international destinations.

Airbus manufactures parts of the A321XLR in specialist factories across Europe, then ships them to its Finkenwerder factory in Hamburg for assembly. The process takes about one month, with workers assembling the fuselage, tail, and wings before installing the engines. The tail is painted first because it is typically more complex than the rest of the aircraft.

In December 2021, the A321XLR development aircraft began final assembly. | © Airbus

Key facts about the new A321XLR

Qantas’ A321XLR stretches five meters longer than the outgoing 737, seating 197 passengers—20 in Business and 177 in Economy.
The A321XLR boosts total seat capacity by 13% without reducing seat space and increases premium seating by 66%.
The first aircraft, registration VH-OGA, will carry the name Great Ocean Road.
The A321XLR flies 3,000 km farther than the 737, with a range of 8,700 km.
Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbo Fan engines (PW1100G-JM) power the aircraft.
The A321XLR reduces noise compared to previous-generation models.
The A321XLR cuts fuel consumption per seat compared to earlier aircraft.
Qantas invites employees to name the new A321XLR fleet after iconic Australian walks, rivers, and roads, highlighting the country’s landscapes and connectivity.

We are certainly looking forward to seeing the final product roll off the assembly line, are you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or on our social media!