Airbus has revealed that two additional customers have each signed for 10 A321XLRs, taking the overall number of committed operators to 15.
Both undisclosed customers are airlines, FlightGlobal understands.
One is converting a prior order for 28 single-aisle aircraft into 10 A321XLRs and 20 A321s, while the other has signed a memorandum of understanding for 10 A321XLRs.
The agreements take to 249 the total number of orders and commitments to the new long-range version of the A321neo, which was unveiled at the Paris air show.
Airbus has obtained new firm orders for 48 XLRs including 20 for American Airlines, 14 for IAG, 10 for Qantas Group and four for Middle East Airlines.
They were supplemented by commitments for another 89 aircraft.
Indigo Partners accounted for 32 of these commitments, lessor Air Lease for 27, with 10 apiece from Cebu Pacific, Flynas, and one of the two unidentified customers.
Airbus says that, as a result, it has taken incremental orders and commitments for 137 new A321XLRs.
But another 112 XLRs have been selected as a result of conversion of previous orders, lifting the overall number to 249 across 12 customers – made up of 15 individual operators and a lessor.
Airbus has attributed the 112 conversions to six customers: American Airlines (30), Qantas Group (26), Indigo Partners (18), Saudia (15), JetBlue Airways (13), and the other unidentified customer (10).
Indigo Partners is taking the aircraft on behalf of Wizz Air, Frontier Airlines and JetSmart. IAG has identified Iberia and Aer Lingus as XLR operators, while Qantas Group will assign the aircraft either to its mainline operation or its Jetstar division.
Source: Cirium Dashboard