A look inside the Aer Lingus A321neo (used on select US routes)

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Aer Lingus ordered the Airbus A321neo Long Range aircraft specifically to give it an efficient aircraft on which to operate transatlantic routes that don’t warrant the use of a wide-body aircraft.

Fortunately, Aer Lingus also employs its A321neo aircraft on select short haul routes (usually while they’re in between transatlantic trips to maximise their airtime), so it was on a flight between London Heathrow and Dublin that I got my first chance to look inside the newest aircraft type in the Aer Lingus fleet.

Aer Lingus A321neo routes to/from the US

At the time of writing, these are the transatlantic routes on which Aer Lingus operates its A321neo aircraft:

From Dublin (DUB)

• Cleveland (CLE)
• Hartford (BDL)
• New York (EWR)
• Philadelphia (PHL)
• Washington D.C. (IAD)

From Shannon

• Boston (BOS)
• New York (JFK)

Note: Some routes may be seasonal, and some routes may be operated by more than one aircraft type.

Inside the Aer Lingus A321neo Long Range

The Aer Lingus A321neo Long Range offers passengers the choice of two cabins – Business Class and Economy Class and the seat map for the aircraft looks like this (click or tap to enlarge).

The Business Class cabin

The Business Class cabin comes fitted with 16 customised Thompson Aero Vantage seats set out in three rows of 4 seats and two rows of 2 seats.

All the Business Class seats convert in fully lie-flat beds (77″ long) and offer passengers 22″ of width.

Often in this cabin, the more coveted seats are the ‘Throne’ seats (rows 3 & 5) because they offer more privacy, a little more storage space, and they guarantee passengers sitting in them that they will not have anyone clambering over them to get to the aisle nor will they have to do any clambering themselves.

Couples or those traveling with a companion with whom they wish to converse during the flight may prefer the pairs of seats in rows 2, 4, & 6.

Solo passengers who find themselves sitting in one of these seat pairs can enjoy a little bit more privacy by using the screens that can be deployed from between the two seats.

Each Business Class seat comes with a 16″ touchscreen TV and two sets of seat controls …

… as well as a universal AC power outlet and a USB-A port.

The Economy Class cabin

In the Economy Class cabin, things are more tightly packed and noticeably less comfortable.

The cabin is set out with six Collins Aerospace Meridian seats in every row arranged in a 3-3 layout.

The seats in this cabin offer a little under 18″ of width and just 3″ of recline (the seats in row 14 don’t recline at all).

Most of the seats in this cabin offer just 31″ of pitch (legroom) …

… but the seats in row 7 (the first row of Economy Class) offer a little bit more …

… and the 12 exit row seats (rows 14 & 15) offer an impressive 35″ of pitch.

This is what 31″ of pitch looks like if I (a 6ft person) am in the seat.

It’s worth noting that the standard Economy Class seats in this narrow body aircraft don’t offer any less legroom than the standard Economy Class seats on a lot of widebody transatlantic aircraft, but given the choice, I’d still say that the exit rows are clearly the place to be in this cabin for transatlantic flights.

Each Economy Class passenger has their own 9″ HD screen which, in most cases, is housed in the seat directly ahead …

… and which is linked to the aircraft’s Panasonic entertainment system offering movies, TV shows, music and more.

Shared AC power outlets are to be found under the seats, and there’s USB-A port beneath each of the entertainment screens.

Also beneath each entertainment screen is the seat’s tray table which isn’t particularly large. Here it is with an iPhone measuring approximately 6″ x 3″.

Above the seats you’ll find reading lights and air nozzles to help regulate the temperature around each seat …

… but even though this is a relatively new aircraft, the Aer Lingus A321neos do not come fitted with the larger overhead bins that Airbus can supply. It’s regular overhead bins only.

Lastly, it’s worth mentioning that the Aer Lingus A321neo LR comes fitted with wifi (Panasonic Avionics eXConnect satellite wifi to be precise) and that’s available to all passengers for a fee.

For the very short flight that I was on, the messaging option cost £1.99/€2.49/$2.99 …

… while the ‘full flight browsing package cost £4.99/€5.99/$6.66.

Clearly, if you find yourself flying a transatlantic route, the cost of wifi will be noticeably higher.

Bottom line

Aer Lingus operates Airbus A321neo LR aircraft on a variety of flights between Ireland and the US East Coast as well as on some short-haul routes between Ireland and Europe/the UK.

The Business Class cabin is, unsurprisingly, the considerably more comfortable part of the aircraft in which to be seated, but if you’re in Economy Class and can select the first row of Economy Class or, better yet, a seat in one of the exit rows, you’ll find that you have more room than in most Economy Class seats offered by considerably larger aircraft that cross the Atlantic.

Have you flown transatlantic on an Aer Lingus A321neo? If you have, let us know what it was like in the comments.