Icelandair has, other than their domestic/feeder airline company, long had an all-Boeing mainline fleet containing 737 MAX- 8 and MAX- 9, 757 – 200, 757 – 300, and 767 jetliners. That all altered on Dec. 10, 2024, when the airline company put an A 321 LR right into solution as TF-IAA, named Esia , per their procedure of naming aircraft after Icelandic volcanoes.
There’s a lot to unpack here, so this write-up will concentrate on the experience of the trip. We’ll do a follow-up tale on the effects of the fleet modification in the future.
The first impression was, unsurprisingly, of newness. It really felt almost like you shouldn’t be in there, as it was so immaculate. The new-airplane scent is an actual point. And it’s fairly charming.
As I did this journey in a somewhat outrageous fashion, flying sequentially from Seattle to Keflavik, Keflavik to Stockholm, after that turning directly around and doing the return with only regarding 90 minutes in each flight terminal, Icelandair was kind enough to seat me in their premium class– Saga– for the entire 22 + hour journey. I’ve done some crazy paths and some actually long trips in my day, however never ever anything rather similar to this marathon. It was concurrently the most idiotic point I’ve ever before done, and also placed amongst one of the most enjoyable things.
By the numbers, the trip covered was 9, 896 miles over four trips covering 22 hours and 15 minutes in the air, all packed into 27 hours of total traveling time. Every one of this was actually for KEF-ARN and back, with the brand-new Plane. I got on a Boeing 737 MAX- 8 on SEA-KEF, the A 321 LR KEF-ARN and ARN-KEF, and a Boeing 757 – 200 KEF-SEA, enabling me to compare experiences across all of Icelandair’s active long-haul fleet options.
I’ve examined Icelandair’s 757 , 737 MAX , and De Havilland Canada DHC- 8 solution in the past, and those observations are still legitimate.
Their 757 s are nearing completion of their service lives, and as such are certainly in need of an upgrade. Limit collection is a fantastic upgrade, yet the acquired 737 s just do not have the variety and bring capability of those terrific 757 s; Boeing missed out on a substantial possibility when it stopped production in 2004 and failed to create a substitute. In prior Icelandair protection, we would certainly kept in mind that the airline’s managment long wished Boeing would come up with a straight replacement for the 757; that certainly has not come to be, and the age of the fleet left them with little choice than to take into consideration Plane’ offerings.
So, in walks Airplane with their newest A 321 derivatives, which are currently the closest point on the market to the 757 in terms of capacities.
Make no mistake, the 737 MAX 8 and 9 are very comfy and proficient aircraft, but Plane is several actions in advance of Boeing with their more recent A 321 LR and just-released A 321 XLR. Limit cabins are absolutely quieter than their predecessor NG versions, yet the Plane is even quieter. The A 321 LR is also 30 % even more fuel-efficient than the aircraft it’s replacing.
Seating also feels more comfy, also in the rear of the aircraft, although that’s more as much as the airline companies than the aircraft supplier.
The Jet jets lack the 737 line’s abundant room containers for overhead travel luggage storage space, but they’re still approximately task. Investing 7 hours on a MAX, then transitioning straight to the brand-new Jet, then back to a 757 for another seven hours offered lots of viewpoint.
The only fiddly aspect of the Saga seats was searching for the power outlets on the Jet, which are smartly hidden under the facility console. There are wonderful little fold-out layer hooks on the seatbacks too, which are fairly useful for cold-weather journeys.
Unlike several residential United States service providers, Icelandair’s 187 -seat A 321 LR does not have a mid-cabin bathroom. Instead, they’re placed in a similar way to the Boeing format of one in advance for Legend course and three in the back of the aircraft for everyone else.
Due to a technical glitch on the inaugural flight, the aircraft’s new-to-Icelandair Viasat’s Ka-band satellite net had not been working. I did experiment with the relocating map and remember of the wide array of motion picture alternatives. The 4 K OLED touchscreens are fairly sharp with smooth capability and stunning shades; it’s one of the nicest IFE displays I have actually seen.
It will be depressing, for many reasons, to see the venerable B 757 fleet retire. Yet the replacement airplane picked by Icelandair is most definitely approximately the task, and surpasses those old jets in traveler convenience and gas performance for the airline company with its far more contemporary engines and avionics systems.
In our following post, we’ll discover what these new airplane mean for the fleet procedures and potential path growths.
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