A very smart move undertaken by Indigo as it allows them to maximize their seats per slot ratio at the restricted airports that they fly out of in India. Plus for India-GCC and India-ASEAN the A321Neo is the ideal aircraft as these are mainly volume driven market segments.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... ch-453529/

I wonder if any of those conversions are for Frontier.

WeatherPilot wrote:

I wonder if any of those conversions are for Frontier.

Wrong Indigo.

That is so many planes, so many seats, mind-boggling. A321s great CASM LCC planes, but that is still such an exponential rise in ASMs.

hOMSaR wrote:

WeatherPilot wrote:

I wonder if any of those conversions are for Frontier.

Wrong Indigo.

whoops.

I still wouldn't be surprised if F9 did convert some of those 320neo on order though.

Is airbus going to be able to meet delivery dates with all these conversions? I’m assuming they were unprepared for the crazy amount of a321 orders they have received.

airzona11 wrote:

That is so many planes, so many seats, mind-boggling. A321s great CASM LCC planes, but that is still such an exponential rise in ASMs.

In the world's fastest growing domestic market, up 20-25% YOY.

Pe@rson wrote:

airzona11 wrote:

That is so many planes, so many seats, mind-boggling. A321s great CASM LCC planes, but that is still such an exponential rise in ASMs.

In the world's fastest growing domestic market, up 20-25% YOY.

No doubt there will be a time when this capacity is needed, but I was just more thinking from the operational challenges of scaling that large so fast. Airlines need to get to scale and have the capital to become sustaining organizations, they have the plan for the planes, in theory, if they can keep the cash flowing, they can make it.

Will be interesting to watch no doubt.

rph99 wrote:

Is airbus going to be able to meet delivery dates with all these conversions? I’m assuming they were unprepared for the crazy amount of a321 orders they have received.

Often the contract with the manufacturer gives the airline the flexibility to firm up on the model (i.e. 320 vs 321) up until a certain point in time before delivery.

Dominion301 wrote:

rph99 wrote:

Is airbus going to be able to meet delivery dates with all these conversions? I’m assuming they were unprepared for the crazy amount of a321 orders they have received.

Often the contract with the manufacturer gives the airline the flexibility to firm up on the model (i.e. 320 vs 321) up until a certain point in time before delivery.

We have another thread on the possible A321 production issue:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1408227

Honestly, the economics of the A321NEO for an ULCC are amazing. I fully expect NK, 6E, and U2 to mostly purchase the type going forward.

The same for low density LCC or 2-class...

Yeah, I'm a fan of the A321.

Lightsaber

Pe@rson wrote:

airzona11 wrote:

That is so many planes, so many seats, mind-boggling. A321s great CASM LCC planes, but that is still such an exponential rise in ASMs.

In the world's fastest growing domestic market, up 20-25% YOY.

Yes. In addition, most international traffic has to go thru a 3rd country hub.

This order will flip some of that equally fast growing traffic to more non-stop route, not to mention simulate more traffic if it is now on a LCC. In addition, operationally this will be more of a distributed point2point routing.

If anything, this will circumvent some of the infrastructure issues. This explosion in growth would have happened earlier but for the NEO's engine issues. The airline must have some confidence that the engine issues are contained if not fixed completely.

As Lightsaber has said there is a thread on A321 production issues.But it is probably the main issue right now.
Airbus have not historically broken out the 320/321 split.I wonder how many more order shifts are hiding in there.IAG have to be a good contender for one.
I note in Flight that Arkia has gone public about their A321LR's with seating at 220 pax (31" pitch) and a reduced range.But still has a non stop destination such as Paris well in scope.I say this as many get transfixed with the 206 pax TATL capability of the aircaft.There will be many permutations of seats/range I believe.

The airline is called IndiGo. Indigo is the owner of Frontier airlines.

Interesting conversion.

Doesn't seem like an overly huge "win" or anything for Airbus, since they already had the order, but that kind of capacity is critical for some airlines right now who need to fill growth gaps while there's still time. I know it's not an LR, but it's still going to continue placing pressure on Boeing and the -10. If not now, then at the very least there's a lot more planes of this size and capacity flying around in the future.

parapente wrote:

I note in Flight that Arkia has gone public about their A321LR's with seating at 220 pax (31" pitch) and a reduced range.But still has a non stop destination such as Paris well in scope.

They specifically mention Southern India. Using the delightfully abbreviated COK as an example (BOM is shorter, MAA is longer) the great circle route is relatively modest 2647nm - I would expect the NEO to do that comfortably. But Israeli airlines have to go down the Red sea to the horn of Africa before heading east. Using tlv-jib-cok as a proxy for that, you're talking 3270nm, which tallies with the Arkia exec talking about 3300nm range with 220pax.

lightsaber wrote:

Dominion301 wrote:

rph99 wrote:

Is airbus going to be able to meet delivery dates with all these conversions? I’m assuming they were unprepared for the crazy amount of a321 orders they have received.

Often the contract with the manufacturer gives the airline the flexibility to firm up on the model (i.e. 320 vs 321) up until a certain point in time before delivery.

We have another thread on the possible A321 production issue:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1408227

Honestly, the economics of the A321NEO for an ULCC are amazing. I fully expect NK, 6E, and U2 to mostly purchase the type going forward.

The same for low density LCC or 2-class...

Yeah, I'm a fan of the A321.

Lightsaber

I am a fan of the A321 as well...its my favorite plane type of all. And in terms of ULCC, I agree...I expect F9 will convert some of their A320NEO's into additional A321NEO's.

Any idea if its cheaper to fly an A321 with 40 or so empty seats than it is to fly an A320 at full capacity? If so....A321 is clearly the way to go for ULCC.