Delta Premium A321neos With Flat Beds: Coming Soon

In early 2022, Delta Air Lines took delivery of its first Airbus A321neo. The airline has 155 of these planes on order, which will be delivered through 2027. The airline has been taking delivery of these jets quickly, and Delta’s A321neo fleet is now approaching 70 aircraft.

This is a great addition to Delta’s fleet — the A321neo has fantastic range and economics, and Delta offers a good passenger experience onboard, including a new first class seat.

The exciting thing is that Delta is expected to introduce an even more premium configuration of the A321neo in the near future. I last wrote about this over a year ago, so want to provide an update, especially as the first of these planes should be entering service in the not-too-distant future.

Delta plans 148-seat Airbus A321neos with flat beds

In March 2022, Airline Weekly broke the story about a fleet guide that Delta shared with pilots, outlining the carrier’s unique A321neo plans. Specifically, it’s expected that 21 Delta A321neos will get a special configuration, featuring just 148 seats (compared to the standard 194 seats). This includes:

• 16 Delta One seats (business class), which will be fully flat and in a 1-1 configuration, with each seat having a privacy door
• 12 Delta Premium Select seats (premium economy), which will be in a 2-2 configuration, somewhat similar to what you’d usually find in domestic first class
• 54 Comfort+ seats (extra legroom economy), which will be in a 3-3 configuration
• 66 Main Cabin seats (economy), which will be in a 3-3 configuration

Based on the seat map, it looks like Delta will have reverse herringbone seats in business class on these planes. That’s exciting — as airlines increasingly install flat beds on narrow body aircraft, we’re frequently seeing herringbone seats rather than reverse herringbone seats.

This is purely speculation on my part, but perhaps the airline will use the STELIA Aerospace OPERA seating platform, as you’ll find on ITA Airways’ A321neos. If this is the case, it would be great news for passengers.

When will Delta start flying premium Airbus A321neos?

In early 2024, rumor had it that the first premium Delta Airbus A321neos would enter service in the third quarter of 2024. That timeline has come and gone, so what’s the latest on that?

Well, @xJonNYC reports that Delta may have already taken delivery of two of these special A321neos. Specifically, the plane with the registration code N551DT was delivered in October 2024, while the plane with the registration code N552DT was delivered in November 2024. Upon delivery, both jets were immediately ferried to Victorville (VCV), where they entered storage.

seems to me to be N551DT (delivered oct 2024) and N552DT (november). Both of them were then immediately ferried into VCV for storage.— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 12:04 AM

Airlines don’t usually put brand new planes into storage if they’re otherwise ready to go. So the belief is that Delta may be working on getting the cabins of these planes certified. So we’ll see about the timeline with which the cabins get certified — hopefully Delta has more luck than Lufthansa is having with its Allegris 787s.

It’s smart of Delta not to plan a firm entry into service date, if certification is a moving target. I imagine that once the planes are certified, we’ll start to see them scheduled on routes with fairly short notice.

What will Delta do with premium Airbus A321neos?

Delta plans to specifically use these Airbus A321neos for premium transcontinental routes, like New York to Los Angeles, New York to San Francisco, etc.

Historically Delta has typically used a combination of Boeing 767s and Boeing 757s for these premium routes, though we knew that eventually there needs to be a replacement, especially if Delta wants to compete with a leading product:

• The 757s don’t have a very competitive product, as business class is in a 2-2 configuration, and the planes aren’t great in economy
• The 767s are getting old, and if you’re focusing on a premium market, there’s something to be said for a lower capacity aircraft (so that more frequencies can be operated with more premium seats)

While back in the day most airlines operated wide body aircraft on premium transcontinental routes, that’s no longer the case. JetBlue has its fleet of Mint-configured A321s, American flies specially configured A321s (which will soon be replaced by A321XLRs), and United plans to eventually fly 737 MAX 10s with flat beds (if that plane ever gets certified).

I think the configuration Delta is planning is roughly what we would have expected. It’s interesting how premium economy is increasingly being offered by US airlines on premium domestic routes. It’s basically like domestic first class, and for a daytime flight it’s very comfortable, in my opinion. For that matter, Delta has already started selling this cabin on select transcontinental flights.

So, what does Delta plan to do with the 757s and 767s that it takes off these routes? Look, these vintage aircraft should be retired, as far as I’m concerned, but we’re talking about Delta here. The airline would add the Wright Flyer to its fleet if it had the capacity. With that in mind:

• Delta is actually reconfiguring some 757s in standard domestic layouts, so that they can be used to add capacity elsewhere
• Delta currently operates a lot of 767-400ERs on domestic routes, so I suspect we’ll see those taken off more domestic routes, instead being flown on international routes, with more focus on A321neos and 767-300ERs operating domestic flights

Bottom line

Delta Air Lines is expected to configure 21 Airbus A321neos in a premium layout. These planes will feature 148 seats, including business class, premium economy, and lots of extra legroom economy seats. While the planes were supposed to enter service in Q3 2024, that didn’t ultimately happen.

However, rumor has it that two planes have already been configured with these cabins, and they’re now awaiting certification. So I imagine they could enter service in the coming months, though an exact timeline remains to be seen. Delta ultimately needs a plan for refreshing its premium domestic fleet, and this seems like a sensible way to do so.

What do you make of Delta’s premium A321neo configuration plans?