The Airbus A321 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short to medium range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin engine jet airliners; it carries 185 to 239 passengers. It has a stretched fuselage which was the first derivative of the baseline A320 and entered service in 1994, about six years after the original A320. The aircraft shares a common type rating with all other Airbus A320-family variants, allowing A320-family pilots to fly the aircraft without the need for further training.
In December 2010, Airbus announced a new generation of the A320 family, the A320neo (new engine option). The similarly lengthened fuselage A321neo variant offers new, more efficient engines, combined with airframe improvements and the addition of winglets (called Sharklets by Airbus). The aircraft delivers fuel savings of up to 15%. The A321neo carries up to 244 passengers, with a maximum range of for the long-range version when carrying no more than 206 passengers.
Final assembly of the aircraft takes place in Hamburg, Germany, Mobile, Alabama, United States, Tianjin, China, and Toulouse, France. , a total of 3,536 A321 airliners have been delivered, of which 3,453 are in service. In addition, another 5,312 A321neo aircraft are on firm order. American Airlines is the largest operator of the Airbus A321 with 302 examples in its fleet. Its launch came on 24 November 1988, around the same time as the A320 entered service, after commitments for 183 aircraft from 10 customers were secured.
thumb|An Airbus A321 on [[Assembly line|final assembly line 3 in the Airbus Hamburg-Finkenwerder plant]]
The maiden flight of the Airbus A321 came on 11 March 1993, when the prototype, registration F-WWIA, flew with IAE V2500 engines; the second prototype, equipped with CFM56-5B turbofans, flew in May 1993.<!--ref name="Eden-25"/--> Lufthansa and Alitalia were the first to order the stretched Airbuses, with 20 and 40 aircraft requested, respectively.<!--ref name="Eden-25"/--> The first of Lufthansa's V2500-A5-powered A321s arrived on 27 January 1994, while Alitalia received its first CFM56-5B-powered aircraft on 22 March 1994.
Final assembly for the A321 was carried out in Germany (then West Germany), a first for any Airbus. This came after a dispute between the French, who claimed that the move would incur $150 million (€135 million) in unnecessary expenditure associated with the new plant, An additional $180 million (€175 million) was borrowed from European Investment Bank and private investors.
The A321 is the largest variant of the A320 family.
Design
thumb|The A321 has double-slotted [[Flap (aircraft)|flaps.]]
The Airbus A321 is a narrow-body (single-aisle) aircraft with a retractable tricycle landing gear, powered by two wing pylon-mounted turbofan engines. It is a low-wing cantilever monoplane with a conventional tail unit having a single vertical stabilizer and rudder. Changes from the A320 include a fuselage stretch and some modifications to the wing. The fuselage was lengthened by a plug ahead of the wing and a plug behind it, making the A321 longer than the A320. The length increase required the overwing window exits of the A320 to be converted into door exits and repositioned in front of and behind the wings. To maintain performance, double-slotted flaps and minor trailing edge modifications were included, The centre fuselage and undercarriage were reinforced to accommodate a increase in maximum takeoff weight, taking it to .
! rowspan="2" |Marketing name
! rowspan="2" |Cabin
! colspan="2" |Fuel config
! rowspan="2" |Fuel capacity
! rowspan="2" |Cargo
|-
!Front
!Rear
|-
|A321-100 CFMI
| rowspan="11" |STD
| rowspan="14" |—
| rowspan="2" |—
|
|10*LD3-45
|-
|A321-100 IAE
|
|10*LD3-45
|-
| rowspan="3" |A321-200 CFMI
|—
|
|10*LD3-45
|-
|1ACT
|
|9*LD3-45
|-
|2ACT
|
|8*LD3-45
|-
| rowspan="3" |A321-200 IAE
|—
|
|10*LD3-45
|-
|1ACT
|
|9*LD3-45
|-
|2ACT
|
|8*LD3-45
|-
| rowspan="3" |A321neo
|—
|
|10*LD3-45
|-
|1ACT
|
|9*LD3-45
|-
|2ACT
|
|8*LD3-45
|-
| rowspan="3" |A321neo ACF
| rowspan="6" |ACF
|—
|
|10*LD3-45
|-
|1ACT
|
|9*LD3-45
|-
|2ACT
|
|8*LD3-45
|-
|A321LR
|1ACT
|2ACT
|
|7*LD3-45
|-
| rowspan="2" |A321XLR
|—
|1RCT
|
|8*LD3-45
|-
|1ACT
|1RCT
|
|7*LD3-45
|}
A321-100
thumb|[[Lufthansa's first A321-100, as seen in 2024]]
The original derivative of the A321, the A321-100, had shorter range than the A320 because no extra fuel tank was added to compensate for the increased weight. The MTOW of the A321-100 is . The A321-100 entered service with Lufthansa in 1994. Only about 90 were produced; some aircraft were later modified through the installation of Additional Centre Tanks (ACTs), increasing fuel capacity and range to levels similar to the later A321-200 variant.
A321-200
thumb|First A321-200 of [[Monarch Airlines in 1999]]
Airbus began development of the heavier and longer-range A321-200 in 1995 to give the A321 full-passenger transcontinental US range. This was achieved through higher thrust engines (V2533-A5 or CFM56-5B3), minor structural strengthening, and an increase in fuel capacity with the installation of one or two optional tanks in the rear underfloor hold.
The lengthened A321neo prototype made its first flight on 9 February 2016.
It received its type certification on 15 December 2016.
The first entered service in May 2017 with Virgin America.
A321LR
thumb|An [[Arkia A321LR in 2019]]
From October 2014, Airbus started marketing a longer range, maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) variant with three auxiliary fuel tanks, and launched it as the A321LR (Long Range) on 13 January 2015, with a range of in a two-class, 206 seat configuration, giving it more operational range than a Boeing 757-200.
On 31 January 2018, the variant completed its first flight, and on 2 October 2018, Airbus announced its certification. On 13 November 2018, the first A321LR went to operator Arkia.
A321XLR
thumb|An A321XLR of launch customer [[Iberia (airline)|Iberia]]
The A321XLR is an A321LR variant with a further increased MTOW intended to compete with the Boeing NMA, which has since been put on hold.
The variant was launched at the June 2019 Paris Air Show, with a range of . It included a new permanent Rear Centre Tank (RCT) for more fuel, a strengthened landing gear for a MTOW and an optimised wing trailing-edge flap configuration to preserve take-off performance.
In June 2022, the A321XLR completed its first flight. Aer Lingus was originally to be the launch customer of the A321XLR. However, due to internal pilot contract disputes, the first A321XLR was instead delivered to Iberia on October 30, 2024. The first flight with passengers was on November 6, 2024. The first long-haul flight with passengers was on 14 November 2024, from Madrid to Boston.
Freighter conversion
While no freighter version of the A321 has been built new by Airbus, a first attempt of converting used A320/321 into freighter aircraft was undertaken by Airbus Freighter Conversion GmbH. The program, however, was canceled in 2011 before any aircraft were converted.
thumb|An [[Australia Post-branded A321P2F of Qantas Freight]]
On 17 June 2015, ST Aerospace signed agreements with Airbus and EFW for a collaboration to launch the A320/A321 passenger-to-freighter (P2F) conversion programme.
The initial converted aircraft first flew on 22 January 2020. On 27 October 2020, the first A321-200P2F was delivered to launch operator Qantas Freight.
The A321-200PCF is a passenger to freighter conversion, developed by Precision Conversions and certificated in 2021.
Sine Draco Aviation also offers an A321 passenger-to-freighter conversion programme; its first conversion is expected for the first quarter of 2022.
On 15 March 2022, Lufthansa Cargo started to operate its A321F, a cargo variant of the A321.
Operators
thumb|A [[Vietnam Airlines Airbus A321ceo retrofitted with the "Sharklets" wingtip devices.]]
, 3,453 Airbus A321 aircraft (1701 ceo+1752 neo) were in service with more than 100 operators.
Accidents and incidents
For the Airbus A321, 32 aviation accidents and incidents have occurred, including six hull-loss accidents or criminal occurrences with a total of 377 fatalities as of August 2019.
Specifications
{| class="wikitable sortable sticky-header" style="text-align:center"
|-
!Variant
! A321
!A321LR
!A321XLR
|-
! Cockpit crew
| colspan="4" | Two
|-
! 2-class seats
| 185 (16F @ 36 in, 169Y @ 32 in)
| colspan="3" | 206 (16 @ 36in + 190 @ 30in)
|-
! 1-class max.
| 220 @ 28in
| 220 @ 28in (Original)<br />244 @ 28in (Cabin-Flex)
| colspan="2" | 244 @ 28in
|
|
|-
! Engines (×2)
| CFM56-5B, fan<br />IAE V2500-A5, fan
| colspan="3" | CFM LEAP-1A, 78 in (1.98 m) fan<br />PW1100G-JM, 81 in (2.06 m) fan
|-
! Max. thrust (×2)<br />Max.:
|-
! Typical range
|
| style="text-align:left" |
|
|
|}
Engines
{| class="wikitable sortable sticky-header" style="text-align: center;"
|-
! Aircraft model !! Certification date !! Engines