Philippine Airlines (PAL) (Philippines) (Manila) has taken delivery of its first Airbus A321. The aircraft was handed over at the Airbus delivery center in Hamburg (Finkenwerder), Germany on August 6 and is the first of 64 new Airbus aircraft ordered by the airline in 2012 under a major fleet modernization program. These include 44 single aisle A321s and 20 widebody A330s.
Philippine Airlines has specified a two class layout for its A321s, with 12 seats in Business Class and 187 in Economy. The airline will operate its new A321s primarily on international routes across the Asian region, as well as on selected domestic flights.
The A321 joins an Airbus fleet at Philippine Airlines that already includes 22 A320 Family aircraft flying on domestic and regional routes, as well as nine in service with its budget subsidiary PAL Express. The carrier also operates eight widebody A330s on higher capacity routes across Asia and seven A340-300s on its longest services to the United States.
Following the introduction of the A321, Philippine Airlines will take delivery of the first of its 20 new A330s in the third quarter of the year. The carrier is also currently adding four A340-300s to its fleet for deployment on new non-stop services to Europe, scheduled to begin next month.
Copyright Photo: Gerd Beilfuss/AirlinersGallery.com. The pictured Airbus A321-231 D-AZAS (msn 5715) on a test flight at Hamburg (Finkenwerder) on August 5 became RP-C9901 on the hand over the following day.
Update: PAL introduced the new A321 on August 9 between Manila and Cebu and Manila and Davao.
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Filed under: Philippines (Philippine Airlines) Tagged: 5715, a320 family, A321, A321200, A321231, Airbus, Airbus A321, Airbus A321200, airbus aircraft, aviation, DAZAS, Finkenwerder, fleet modernization program, Hamburg, Philippine Airlines, Philippines, Philippines (Philippine Airlines), RPC9901, transportation, XFW
