Mideast Airlines Poised for Introduction of Airbus A321XLR

The European manufacturer’s new 4,700-nm-range narrowbody will allow access to 85 percent of the world’s population from the Middle East’s major hubs.

The range of the Airbus A321 XLR will allow Lebanon's Middle East Airlines to fly direct from Beirut to Cape Town. (Image: Airbus)

By Gregory Polek • Senior Editor

November 15, 2019

While much of the attention paid to Airbus’s A321XLR has centered on prospects for opening further transatlantic narrowbody markets, the latest and largest member of the A320neo family carries a far wider appeal, particularly in places in which the airline industry’s low-fare sector remains comparatively underdeveloped. In the Middle East, low-fare carriers account for just 19 percent of the market, compared with some 40 percent in North America and Europe, presenting an opportunity perhaps as dynamic as that already largely exploited by Airbus in Asia. Meanwhile, current A330 operators such as Saudi Arabian Airlines and Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines have shown a market exists for more narrowbody sales opportunity among full-service carriers in the region, from where the 4,700-nm reach of the A321XLR will offer access to some 85 percent of the world’s population, by Airbus’s reckoning.

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