The Airbus 321 Neo versions

Driven by curiosity, I recently did a cursory research of the different Airbus A321neo versions that were offered by Airbus Industries. Having done so, I decided to share my findings in this article. If anyone sees errors or omissions, or has additional info, please send them to me by comment below and I will edit them into this article.

The Airbus 321, fist introduced in 1994, is a stretched version of the popular A320. In 2010, with Pratt and Whitney and CFM International both working on new, more fuel efficient engines, Airbus announced it would offer a new version of the A321, one fitted with either of these two new engines. The new A321s would be called the A321neo. "neo" not only means "new" in Greek, but it is also an acronym that stands for "New Engine Option". When the A321neo was introduced in 2016, the classic A321, which until then had just been called the A321, was renamed the A321ceo, for "Classic Engine Option", to distinguish it from the new model.

Engine options

The A321neo can be ordered with either of two engine brands, either the CFM International Leap 1A or the Pratt and Whitney GTF engine. These 2 brands offers 5 further sub-versions that can be installed on the A321, 3 for the CFM and 2 for the Pratt and Whitney.

There are 10 A321neo aircraft model designations. This is how they are broken down: they all begin with "A321" which is the basic type. After a hyphen is a 3 digit number. The first digit is a"2" which indicates a "200" series aircraft. All Airbus 321s now in production are 200 series. The second digit identifies the engine brand and engine model. "25x" designates a CFM and "27x" designates a Pratt and Whitney. The third digit is the specific engine power rating. The 3 digit engine indicator is followed with an "N", which indicates that it is a Neo, and sometimes another letter. As an example, A321-271N is an A321, "271" means it is fitted with a Pratt and Whitney PW1133G-JM engine and "N" means it's a Neo aircraft.

When there is just "N" at the end, it means that this aircraft has the classic A321ceo fuselage, with 4 doors on each side.

The aircraft will look like this: A321-271N

There is also an A321-272N, with a slightly different version of the same Pratt and Whitney GTF engine, the PW1130G-JM. I was not able to learn what the differences is between those two engines. They seem to both have the same published power rating although the different third digit normally indicates that they do not.

Here is an A321-272N

Those aircraft with the classic fuselage have all have their equivalent with the CFM International LEAP-1A engine. They are the A321-251N, with a CFM LEAP-1A32, the A321-252N, with a CFM-LEAP-1A30, and finally the A321-253N, with a CFM LEAP-1A33.

I do not know what the difference is between these three versions of the CFM LEAP-1A engine.

Fuselage option

When Airbus developed the A321neo, it offered a fuselage option, that would help optimise the configuration of the cabin interior, for an increased passenger capacity, among other improvements. The major and most obvious modifications to the fuselage are the removal of the number 2 doors on each side, the addition of two emergency over wing exits on each side of the fuselage, and moving the number 3 doors a few frames aft. Airbus calls this fuselage the Airbus Cabin Flex (ACF) and the aircraft with this fuselage option have an "X" at the end of the type designation. When delivered with the ACF fuselage the:

A321-271N becomes the A321-271NX

A321-272N becomes the A321-272NX

A321-251N becomes the A321-251NX

A321-252N becomes the A321-252NX

A321-253N becomes the A321-253NX

Fuel options

All classic fuselage A321neo are offered with an option for either no Additional Center Tank (ACT), with 1 ACT or with two ACTs. The A321neo with the ACF fuselage option are offered with an option for a third ACT. All these ACTs are removable, so their presence or omission is not reflected in the aircraft type designation. An A321neo with the ACF fuselage and 3 ACTs is commonly called the A321LR, although that is not its official designation.

Weight Options

Airbus offers 11 different Weight Variant combinations for the A321neo. An aircraft configured with single class high density seating for short haul routes will need to have a high Zero Fuel weight, a high maximum landing weight but will not need a high maximum takeoff weight. One configured for long haul, three class cabin, will need a high maximum take off weight but will not necessarily require a very high zero fuel weight nor a very high maximum landing weight.

The Maximum Take-off weights offered are :

80, 89, 90.5, 91, 92.5, 93.5, 95 and 97 tonnes.

The Maximum Zero fuel weights offered are :

67, 73.3, 75.6 tonnes.

The maximum landing weights offered are:

71.5, 77.3, 79.2 tonnes.

The 11 Weight Variants are a pre-selected package of a combinations of the weights listed above. They are called WV050, WV051, WV052, WV053, WV056, WV063, WV065, WV070, WV071 (ACF), WV072 (ACF) and WV080.

WV71 and WV072 which are those that offer the 97 tonne take-off weight are only available to ACF versions, for the fitting of the third ACT.

Details here.

The weight options chosen by the customer, are not reflected in the type designation.

A321neo Production

I did a little research to see how many of each of the different type designations were produced. I counted quickly so these numbers are approximate:

A321-251N 44

A321-251NX 339

A321-252N 28

A321-252NX 75

A321-253N 28

A321-253NX 152

A321-271N 98

A321-271NX 527

A321-272N 42

A321-272NX 683

The engine issues that the A321neo are facing only affect certain Pratt and Whitney GTF series aircraft and not any of the CFM LEAP-1A powered aircraft.

A321XLR

Airbus further developed the A321 into the A321XLR, a longer range version of the A321LR, which includes a non-removable center tank with more fuel capacity than the two ACTs that were installed in the rear hold of the A321LR. There are also a few other modifications and a MTOW increase for this aircraft. The A321XLR has a MTOW of 101 tonnes (possibly 101.7). The inboard flaps are single slotted instead of double slotted and they will have additional software controlled intermediate positions in addition to the five pilot controlled positions, 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4. (Legacy A321s already had software controlled retraction of flaps to 0 during acceleration in flaps 1 position (the slats were still controlled by the pilots).

Wheels and brakes will be beefed up for the higher weights.

So far, Airbus has two prototypes flying, one with each of the two engines options. They were given the type designations A321-271NY and A321-253NY.

271 and 253 of course designates the engines that are fitted to the aircraft, N indicates that its a Neo model and the Y replaces the X. X formally designated an ACF fuselage, but Y indicates an ACF fuselage which incorporates not only the new, non-removable rear center tank, the higher take off weights the, flaps, wheel, brake, and structural modifications.

Engine recognition hint

How does one distinguish a CFM powered A321Neo from a P&W powered A321Neo at first glance ? In certain previous aircraft that were offered with several engine options, it was very easy to tell one from the other. A GE powered A330, for example, has an engine and a cowling that looks very different from a RR powered A330. The same for the B757 GE or RR powered B757, the A320Ceo and A321Ceo. However PW and CFM powered A320Neo and A321Neos have cowlings and engines that look very very similar to each other. Their fans and nose cones are different but unless you have them side by side, they are hard to distinguish form one another. So here is the trick:

Look at the top of the engine pilon. The one supporting the PW powered A321 is shorter than the one supporting the CFM powered one.