Aer Lingus’s first Airbus A321XLR has been delivered, having flown to Dublin from the airframer’s Hamburg Finkenwerder plant – one of two transferred to the Irish capital on the same day.
The airline had originally been poised to be the first operator to receive the long-range twinjet variant.
But this plan was subsequently shelved after the IAG-owned carrier ran into problems trying to secure a pilot labour agreement and structural changes.
IAG’s Spanish airline Iberia instead became the first to introduce the XLR, taking delivery of its initial jet at the end of October.
The first Aer Lingus aircraft (EI-XLR) was flown to Dublin on 18 December, touching down on runway 28 at around 14:10.
Its second (EI-XLT) left Finkenwerder later the same day and arrived at 21:10.
Both jets are powered by CFM International Leap-1A engines.
Airbus says the Aer Lingus aircraft are configured with 184 seats on a two-class layout, including 16 in the business-class cabin.
Aer Lingus has indicated that it will use the long-range capabilities of the aircraft to serve such US destinations as Minneapolis, Nashville and Indianapolis.
