New Details about Air Canada’s Airbus A321XLR Business Class

In March 2022, Air Canada announced its plans to add a number of Airbus A321XLR aircraft to its fleet in the coming years. In the media release, the airline stated that lie-flat seats are to be part of the experience, amongst a number of other inclusions.

Through an interview posted on Executive Traveller, Air Canada has revealed some more details about the order, and also alluded to a refresh of the business class cabins on other aircraft in its fleet.

New Business Class Cabin on Air Canada Airbus A321XLRs

In the initial announcement of Air Canada’s plan to acquire Airbus A321XLR aircraft, it was simply stated that there would be capacity for 182 passengers, with 14 lie-flat Signature Class seats in the business class cabin, and 168 seats in economy. At the time, it wasn’t clear what the configuration for the business class cabin would be, which we now know will be 1-1.

In the interview, Mark Nasr revealed that Air Canada’s in-house design team is working together with Acumen to design the seats.

Some of Acumen’s other projects include Mint business class on the JetBlue Airbus A321LR aircraft, the Etihad Airways First Class Apartment and Residence suites, ANA “The Suite” First Class, and the Hawaiian Airlines 787 Dreamliner business class products.

Interestingly, there isn’t any confirmation about the inclusion of a door with the suites; however, Nasr described the suites as “private”, which suggests that it’s entirely possible.

Given that sliding doors are all the rage in new business class products these days, it wouldn’t be entirely surprising to find them on the A321XLR business class product once more details are released.

As we knew before, a premium economy cabin is not going to be included on these aircraft. Recall that Air Canada operates narrowbody aircraft on some transatlantic routes, such as between Halifax and London or Toronto and Reykjavik, as well as on a number of routes within North America.

Currently, the business class cabin Air Canada’s Boeing 737 MAX 8 and Airbus A220-300 aircraft is being sold as premium economy on transatlantic routes, but as business class on flights within North America.

If the Airbus A321XLR aircraft are used on similar routes, we’d expect the product to be consistently marketed and sold as business class, since it will offer…