Central European budget carrier Wizz Air has taken delivery of its initial Airbus A321XLR, becoming the first operator to have the long-range type with Pratt & Whitney engines.
The airline has configured the twinjet, which carries the UK registration G-XLRA, with a single-class layout featuring 239 seats.
Wizz had intended to receive the A321XLR at an event in Hamburg scheduled for mid-April, but this was ultimately postponed.
The airline had already previously pushed back the jet’s debut on the London Gatwick-Jeddah route which had been scheduled for the end of March.
Wizz has 47 of the type on order, and says it intends to add six of them to its fleet this year. Airbus says the airline is “enhancing its capacity to connect Europe and the Middle East” as a result of the delivery.
Wizz’s first aircraft is equipped with the GTF geared turbofan engine. Previously-delivered A321XLRs – to carriers including Iberia and Aer Lingus – have been fitted with the CFM International Leap-1A.
The GTF-powered A321XLR secured European Union Aviation Safety Agency certification in February, seven months after the regulator approved the Leap-1A version.
Wizz exclusively operates Airbus single-aisle jets, and its XLRs are part of a backlog of 295 aircraft still to be delivered to the carrier.
