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With all the recent excitement over the delivery of BA’s first Airbus A350 (featuring the brand new ‘Club Suite’ Business Class cabin), it would be easy to overlook the fact that its IAG stable-mate Aer Lingus has just received its first Airbus A321LR.

The aircraft is 1 of 8 A321LRs to be delivered and is configured in a two-class layout with 16 Business Class and 168 Economy seats.

As Airbus itself describes, “with a range of up to 4,000 nm (7,400 km) the A321LR is the unrivalled long range route opener, featuring true transatlantic capability and premium wide-body comfort in a single-aisle aircraft cabin.”

Business Class seats will be the same as those used on the airline’s wide-body A330 aircraft, but laid out in alternating rows of 2-2, 1-1 in order to fit the single-aisle aircraft. The cabin should therefore look very similar to what Aer Lingus currently offers on its (also single-aisle) Boeing 757:

When can I try it?

There have been some delays to the delivery schedule – in fact, the first flights were supposed to have taken place at the beginning of July – so don’t trust the following as gospel. That said, it should provide a reasonable rough guide to the initial routes and dates:

• Dublin-Hartford from 2nd August 2019
• Shannon-Boston from 27th October 2019
• Dublin-Washington Dulles from 29th October 2019
• Dublin-Philadelphia from 1st November 2019
• Dublin-Newark from 13th February 2020 

Bottom line

Aer Lingus continues to provide a nice way to redeem Avios for flights across the Atlantic without paying big surcharges. The airline also offers a genuinely decent Business Class product and it’s good to see that same standard being maintained on the new A321LRs.

Which IAG Business Class do you prefer – BA, Iberia, or Aer Lingus?