Latest Airplane Could Be Introduced At The Paris Air Show

JetBlue is among the carriers that is looking at the Airbus A321XLR which industry analysts believe will be introduced this summer at the Paris Air Show.

The airplane would be the latest variant of the A321neo. Yahoo Finance reports that JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes said on Monday that the airline has already decided to convert 13 of its 85 A321neo orders into a longer-range A321LR as it looks to expand into routes between New York, Boston and London in 2021.

The A321XLR would allow the low-cost carrier to expand deeper into Europe to cities such as Brussels and Amsterdam. Bloomberg News reports that the A321XLR is being designed with a new fuel tank that could give it a range well in excess of 4,000 nautical miles. Airline Entrepreneur David Neeleman, who's startups include JetBlue, WestJet Airlines, Brazil's Azul SA and a new yet-to-be-named U.S. venture that is currently known as Moxy, said he would definitely be interested in the longer-range A321. In an interview in Chicago, Neeleman said "I wish it was coming sooner."

Rumors of the A321XLR come as Boeing reportedly is shifting at least some of its focus away from a new twin-aisle New Mid-Market Airplane (NMA) ... which is known familiarly in aviation circles as the 797 ... to shoring up the 737 MAX line in the wake of two fatal accidents involving the new, and currently grounded, single-aisle airplane.

Hayes said that any orders for the A321XLR by JetBlue would be converted from existing orders rather than new ones.

FMI: Source report
Source report