United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) has taken delivery of its first A321-200NX at the Airbus site at Hamburg Finkenwerder airport, marking the carrier's first new Airbus delivery in more than two decades.
N45501 (msn 11500) was ferried from Hamburg via Reykjavik Keflavik to Cleveland Hopkins on October 16, 2023, according to AirNav RadarBox ADS-B data. The ch-aviation fleets module shows that the aircraft is configured for up to 200 passengers, including 123 economy class seats, 57 economy plus seats, and 20 business class seats.
The aircraft is the first of 130 A321neo from United's order, including the 60 commitments from earlier this month. The carrier is also due fifty A321-200NY(XLR)s. It will be its first A320neo Family aircraft, as it does not operate or have any A320-200Ns on order. United Airlines plans to press the A321neo into service on December 14 and will initially deploy it on leisure routes from Chicago O'Hare to Fort Lauderdale International and Phoenix Sky Harbor.
The ch-aviation fleets history module shows that the last new Airbus delivered to United Airlines was A320-200 N498UA (msn 1865), inducted in October 2002. The carrier added twenty-eight A319-100s and A320-200s between 2016 and 2021, but they were all second-hand having previously been operated by China Eastern Airlines (MU, Shanghai Hongqiao). Its current Airbus fleet comprises eighty-one A319s and ninety-seven A320-200s. United's widebody fleet is exclusively from Boeing.
