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Airbus delivered today the first A321LR to Israeli airline Arkia during a ceremony in Hamburg. The aircraft, registered 4X-AGH, made its delivery flight to Tel Aviv, Israel.
Arkia replaced Primera Air as the launch customer of this aircraft.
This plane its set to replace the Arkia’s Boeing 757 and increase fleet capacity. With the aircraft, Arkia will primarily serve Europe and open up new markets to the east and west. This aircraft will be arranged in a single-clbad configuration with 220 seats. It will have a range of about 3,300 nautical miles (6,100 km).
Franck Navallon, Marketing director of Airbus, says that Airbus observed a change in the needs of airlines who want to optimize the management of their revenue with a larger cabin segmentation. “They want to offer more comfort in front and in parallel, the pitch is reduced to the back”
“It’s also thanks to these kinds of improvements that the A321 program has become a real success. Today, it accounts for 40% of our single-aisle deliveries.”
In addition to the fact that the Airbus Cabin Flex must become a standard layout on the A321neo, other innovations come in the new luggage compartments, which will offer 60% more space, and the adaptation of the Airspace product on the A320 family.
“It’s especially at the cabin level that there will be future developments,” said Navallon.
The new aircraft is equipped with a reinforced landing gear, capable of holding the extra weight that comes with flying further. The manufacturer upgraded this variant with an increased Maximum Takeoff Weight (MTOW) of 97 tons, which is needed to allow the installation of the three fuel tanks.
The A321LR has recorded 110 orders from ten identified customers, of which four aircraft will be for Arkia.
All Images by Hamburg Aviation
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