Jetstar has firmed up a delivery date for the first of its new long-range Airbus A321NEO aircraft, which will free up some of its larger aircraft to pursue growing markets in Asia.
Qantas’ budget subsidiary will receive its first A321NEO LR aircraft in August next year, with another to arrive before Christmas 2020 and a total of 18 to be in the fleet by the end of 2022, the airline confirmed on Friday.The 232-seat jets will predominantly operate on Jetstar’s domestic network, as an updated version of its existing A320s.
However, the new aircrafts’ more efficient engines mean they can fly further and fly routes such as Melbourne to Bali overnight after operating within Australia during the day.
“We can do that within the first four or five (deliveries), and that will free up approximately three 787s, so then we get the opportunity to decide where to put those,” he said.
“Obviously you don’t make that decision too early… but I suspect we will be utilising those partly to also provide some growth on Bali.”
For passengers, the new planes’ seats will be 18.2 inches wide and have a 29 inch pitch (legroom). That is slightly more generous than its existing short-haul A320s (17.9 wide, 29 inch pitch), and wider but with less legroom than its 787 seats (17 inches wide, 30 inch pitch).
The new aircraft will not have seatback screens, but Jetstar on Friday announced it would install in-flight streaming to both its new and existing short-haul jets so passengers would be able to watch television and movies on their own devices on long flights to Bali.Overhead cabins meanwhile will be 40 per cent larger than its current A320s.
Jetstar has a total of 109 A321 NEOs on order for Airbus, including 36 of its XLR (extra long-haul) variant, but it has not confirmed the delivery scheduled for those remaining aircraft.theage