Greek flag carrier Aegean Airlines has announced that it has cancelled an order for two Airbus A321XLRs that were meant to accelerate its expansion into India. The carrier’s Executive Chairman revealed the information in an earnings call following the publication of its financial results this week.
The latest news means that the airline’s anticipated debut to India has now been postponed. The A321LR‘s theoretical range allows it to reach the Indian subcontinent from Aegean’s Athens hub but it opted for the A321XLR instead to accelerate its launch. It says that it was informed of a delay to the delivery of its A321XLRs which would force it to postpone its India launch originally slated for this summer.
The carrier’s A320neo family fleet is slowly growing. In total, it hopes to receive 60 A320neo family jets, including 39 A321neos and 21 A320neos. It has already taken delivery of 21 A320neos and 17 A321neos according to Planespotters.net,
The A321XLRs were meant to form part of a long-range sub-fleet of six A321neos in total, of which four were to be the LR variant. Aegean hopes to replace its lost XLR capacity with two additional LRs, the company revealed this week.
Aegean Airlines was expecting a pair of A321XLRs from “another airline that wished to cancel them,” explained Executive Chairman Eftichios Vassilakis. At the time of the order announcement, it confirmed that it would receive them in December 2025 and January 2026 respectively. This clearly did not pan out.
“With those aircraft, there has been a problem in terms of some certification issues in the seats. The deadline to receive them was pushed back by around 7 to 8 months,” Vassilakis revealed. He added that this meant that the planes would only be delivered “by the end of the summer and later in autumn” which would have made them “redundant for us because they were meant to accelerate our entry in longer distance markets like India mainly.”
Two and a half weeks ago, the carrier cancelled its order for the XLRs which it was allowed to do given the “extreme delay.”
| Fleet type | Total orders (change) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A320neos | 21 | All delivered. |
| A321neo | 35 (+2) | |
| A321LR | 4 | Aegean hopes to switch two standard A321neos to the LR variant to have a total fleet of 6 A321LRs and 33 standard A321neos. |
| A321XLR | None (-2) |
Instead, the airline says that it has acquired an additional two standard A321neos to “keep the number of aircraft on the neo fleet steady” at 60 aircraft. It is also looking at converting existing orders for the standard neo to the LR variant. This would allow its sub-fleet of longer-range neos to remain at six, now composed entirely of LR planes instead of four LRs and 2 XLRs. The longer-range sub-fleet will have “a very different product specification for the company.”
IndiGo launched its own flights connecting both Delhi and Mumbai with Athens. The carrier is using its own fleet of Airbus A321XLR aircraft to operate the routes that each fly thrice-weekly. The services began in January and are part of the carrier’s broader European expansion, and its foray into the long-haul, narrowbody space.
Aegean Airlines was meant to join IndiGo on both sectors as of this summer. However, the delivery delays of its A321XLRs have meant this has been pushed back. Vassilakis said that while on the one hand the order cancellation simplifies its fleet structure, it pushes the carrier’s launch back by 1 year “between the delay and the arrival of the new aircraft.”
The new aircraft he is referring to are the A321LRs that will be delivered in early-2027. These will enable it to fly to India as well. The A321XLRs were instead an attempt to accelerate the launch of its new India routes.
Featured image: Aegean Airlines
