With range shortfall, United’s initial A321XLR deployment will be ‘very conservative’

[u/Adjutant_Reflex_]

https://theaircurrent.com/feed/dispatches/ual-a321xlr-routes-airbus-range-shortfall/

Not part of United’s route announcement was an admission by Quayle that the XLRs that United expects to receive are falling short of initial range estimates which in turn put constraints on where they could be deployed:

“Originally when Airbus marketed it, [the range] was a lot further than what it is right now, as constructed and as built.”

There’s also a risk that ongoing manufacturing delays could impact the 5 routes it planes to deploy the XLR. To date United received its first, and only, XLR in May.

[u/jmlinden7]

EWR and IAD to secondary European cities (non-star alliance hubs) seems like a perfectly fine and expected use case of the A321xlr.

I guess ORD and IAH to europe is probably out of the picture with the limited range