First A321 enters LAN Fleet

Latin America is no exception to the worldwide trend of up gaging capacity

December 4th marked the unveiling of LAN’s first A321, the start of a long series of A321 deliveries to the airline. By introducing this aircraft, which has the lowest cost per seat of any flying machine, LAN exemplifies the worldwide trend of up gaging capacity.

Indeed the aviation market is growing and will continue to do so during the next 20 years. And this is quite easy to understand with a growing middle class wanting to fly more and more, at more and more reasonable prices. This is why, on long and short sectors, airlines around the world select larger modules to cope with that growth, reduce their cost per seat and offer better deals to their passengers, which in turn encourage even more people to fly. This latest addition to LAN’s fleet will operate trunk domestic routes with large business and leisure traffic levels.

Today, the number of A321s in operation represents 15 percent of the A320 Family (composed of A319, A320 and A321). The A321 variant accounts for 27 percent of the other types of the Family remaining to be delivered. And when trying to anticipate the future, the Airbus GMF (Global Market Forecast) predicts that this share could rise as high as 43 percent. Almost one out of every two single-aisle aircraft will be the largest A320 Family member.

This is good news for Airbus and its operators, as amongst the new engine variant of the A320 Family is the A321neo with its 240 seats maximum capacity and its 3,900 nautical miles of maximum range (at 164 passenger payload and maximum MTOW of 97t with 3 ACTs) and already a 65 percent of market share over its direct competitor.

For more information contact:
Bernard de l’Estoile
Marketing Director, Airbus Latin America & Caribbean
bernard.delestoile@airbus.com