Take a look at Iberia’s new A321XLR business class seat

Later this year, Iberia will be the first airline to take delivery of the extended-range Airbus A321XLR.

Internal IAG politics means that the Spanish flag carrier is leap-frogging its sister airline Aer Lingus which is in the midst of a pay dispute with its pilots.

Aer Lingus pilots want salary increases of over 20% whilst management are refusing to budge beyond 8.5%.

These days, all new aircraft orders are made centrally by IAG and management there are using the A321XLR as a stick in their negotiations. Until the pilots come to a deal with Aer Lingus it will defer all A321XLR deliveries for the airline, implicitly reducing flying time for pilots.

This means that Iberia will become the launch carrier when it takes delivery of its first aircraft “by the end of Summer.”

What the A321XLR means for Iberia

The A321XLR is the newest variant of the A321 family and extends the aircraft’s range even further, to 4,700 nautical miles. This puts it within spitting distance of 10 – 11 hour flights, including to the western United States and as far East as India and Sri Lanka.

This makes it a very attractive aircraft for long, thin routes where the capacity of a widebody aircraft with 300+ seats is too much.

Aer Lingus already operates its ‘long range’ sibling, the A321LR, whilst Iberia is expecting a fleet of eight A321XLRs. It has already confirmed that the first destinations are going to be Boston and Washington DC which are currently seasonal routes; the A321XLR will allow it to ramp down capacity during the quieter winter months without dropping the routes entirely.

Iberia is configuring its A321XLR with 14 lie-flat, direct aisle access business class seats and 168 economy seats for a total capacity of 182. A premium economy cabin is conspicuously absent.

Iberia’s new A321XLR business class seat

Since the aircraft is being used for flights of 8+ hours, it is only right that it will feature a proper, lie-flat seats in its business class cabin.

Iberia only just unveiled a new business class seat for its latest batch of A350s, based on the Recaro R7 model. Unfortunately, this staggered seat is not available for the narrower fuselage on the A321XLR, forcing Iberia to go seat shopping again.

Whilst no official announcement has been made, a low resolution photo (see below) of the new seat was accidentally posted on Iberia’s newsroom last week and spotted by reader Andy.

What is clear from the image above is that Iberia has selected the VantageSOLO seat from Northern Irish manufacturer Thompson Aero Seating. If it looks familiar, that’s because it is the same seat that JetBlue uses on its A321LR planes to London, which I reviewed here.

This is an inward-facing herringbone seat, which means you’ll be facing away from the windows and into the aisle. This is an unfortunate compromise that is down to the geometries of the cabin.

Although counter intuitive, the space between the aisle and the windows is actually wider than on widebody aircraft. This means that herringbone seats must be angled more horizontally in order to maintain the same density.

Unfortunately, this becomes a problem in outward-facing herringbones as the seat itself becomes an obstruction to the aisle. There is no easy way to avoid this. As you can see below, flyDubai’s latest lie-flat business class seat from Safran Seats overcomes this issue by slicing off the corner of the seat cushion, which raises questions around overall comfort when sitting.

Iberia’s A321XLR seat avoids this altogether by settling for an inward-facing herringbone.

Love is an open door

Visually, it’s in-keeping with Iberia’s new widebody business class seat, which I reviewed here. That means woven, warm-grey upholstery and light wood-effect finishes on hard surfaces such as the console table and and storage. Iberia’s signature red and yellow tones are only used as accent colours, including on the in-flight entertainment screen and likely inside some of the storage areas.

Unlike JetBlue, it looks like Iberia has opted to install the seat without a fully closing privacy door. That may be an unusual choice in 2024, when doored suites are the norm, but in this case I think Iberia has made the right choice.

The addition of doors on business class suites adds significant additional weight and complexity. According to independent aviation journalist John Walton, “a modern lightweight composite door would come in at about 8-10kg”, with some of the flexible panel solutions on the market a few kilos less.

In aviation, every additional kilo makes a difference. A door on every one of the 14 seats Iberia intends to install in business class would add an additional 140kg across the entire aircraft, which in turn increases the fuelburn on every flight. Across the entire life of the aircraft – some 20+ years – that can quickly add up to thousands of tons of fuel saved.

In this case, I think the trade-off in privacy versus weight and fuel is one worth making. That’s because I already find the Thompson VantageSOLO seat to be very private. On top of that, the inward facing herringbone means that you are protected from the comings and goings on the aisle, unlike outward facing herringbones where your head and shoulders are closest to the aisle. In my opinion, the door, whilst neat, adds little additional privacy or protection for this seat, so I can see why Iberia has gone without it.

Other things to look out for are 18-inch, 4K screens, hopefully with Bluetooth pairing.

“Each seat will have its own lighting system, which can be adjusted independently to the desired environment, while each seat will have its number backlit during night mode, so that it can be more easily found.”

I will be intrigued to see if Iberia’s version of the seat features the same clever laptop drawer as found on JetBlue’s Mint seat, which is one of the most useful storage areas I’ve ever used:

A question mark also remains over whether Iberia has opted for Thompson’s ‘business plus’ front row option, which would make the two bulkhead seats in row one substantially more spacious a la JetBlue’s Mint Studio. At present, Iberia treats all business class seats the same: could this change with the A321XLR?

For now, however, we will have to wait and see until Iberia reveals the seat in greater detail.

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