MONTREAL, CANADA — Canada's third-largest airline operator Air Transat announced long-term lease agreements for four new Airbus A321XLR aircraft with the American lessor Air Lease Corporation (ALC). Montreal-based carrier's new jets will join the fleet from the end of 2025 through 2026.


The deliveries will be made from ALC's order book with Airbus. The agreement also includes an option for one additional Airbus A321XLR aircraft to be delivered in 2027. The agreement came as part of Air Transat's strategic business plan that aims to renew and simplify the airline's fleet. 
The A321XLR2s will also enable Air Transat to add new transatlantic routes to the airlines existing network.

"ALC is pleased to announce this lease placement for four new A321XLRs with Air Transat and be the first to introduce the XLR to the Canadian airline,"

said Steven Udvar-Házy, Executive Chairman of Air Lease Corporation.

"The A321XLR will bring new levels of comfort and excellent service to Air Transat's passengers, while providing significant enhancements to the airline's operational efficiency,"

 Udvar-Házy continued.

"Air Transat's new leasing agreement with our long-trusted partner ALC represents another key milestone in the renewal and simplification of our fleet undertaken since 2017. Along with A321LRs, XLRs figure as a cornerstone of Transat's 2022-2026 strategic plan. These aircraft can improve the quality of our transatlantic program by increasing the number of frequencies per week with the same capacity, representing a more attractive offer for our customers. Adding these three new XLRs to our fleet - with an optional fourth one - will allow us greater operational flexibility as this type of aircraft is very well suited to our needs across our programs annually,"

stated Annick Guérard, President and Chief Executive Officer of Transat.

Air Transat currently operates 12 longer-range Airbus A320neo variant A321LR. 

In January 2018, Airbus announced that it was working on an improved A321LR variant with a further increased MTOW with a strengthened landing gear, which was intended to fly almost 5,000 nmi (9,300 km).