LATAM Airlines Group has ordered five A321-200NY(XLR)s from lessor Air Lease Corporation with deliveries tentatively scheduled to start in fall 2025 and continue through 2026. The announcement comes after the South American carrier holding ordered seventeen A321-200Ns during the 2022 Farnborough International Air Show in July.
LATAM did not reveal on which of its AOCs - LATAM Airlines, LATAM Airlines Brasil, LATAM Airlines Colombia, LATAM Airlines Ecuador, or LATAM Airlines Perú - it will allocate the five aircraft. It is its first commitment for any extended-range narrowbody type. The XLR is proving to be a popular platform for carriers from the southern part of South America - in Chile, both SKY Airline (Chile) and JetSMART have units of the type on order. The advertised range of the XLR, which has yet to be certified, would allow carriers to operate non-stop services from hubs such as Santiago de Chile, São Paulo Guarulhos, Rio de Janeiro International, or Buenos Aires Ministro Pistarini to the United States beyond Florida.
The aircraft will be delivered from ALC's existing order book with Airbus. The ch-aviation fleets module shows that the lessor has a firm order for 29 units of the type, of which fifteen are earmarked for Air Canada, a further three for Air Transat, and the remaining 11 are not publicly allocated to any carrier.
