Nicholas Draganovici and Mazin Elbushra of Air Canada on A321XLR costs, new routes such as Tenerife, pilot commonality and the cabin.
What the video covers
Written in our own words. It only describes what the video shows and says.In this short Airbus video, two Air Canada managers answer quick questions about the A321XLR: Nicholas Draganovici, Director of Long-Term Operations Planning, together with Mazin Elbushra, Director of Fleet and Network Strategy. Asked for the main benefit in one word, Draganovici answers fuel, fuel savings and efficiency; the effect on seasonality is named as well.
Fuel, weight and airport charges
Elbushra says that as a new aircraft the A321XLR should be cheaper to maintain. He notes that crewing and pilot costs are usually major line items, but says fuel matters more. He describes the gain as narrowbody economics on long-haul routes and mentions airport charges and other fees linked to the maximum take-off weight (MTOW). Draganovici explains that a lighter aircraft now flies a route that a heavier type would otherwise have flown, so anything weight driven is significantly lower than on a widebody.
New routes and more frequency
Asked whether the aircraft is meant for long, thin routes or for existing routes outside the peak, Elbushra says the answer is both. Destinations that a widebody could not serve profitably are one use case. He names Tenerife, which Air Canada adds next winter. The airline has scheduled Tenerife flights from Toronto and Montreal for the winter of 2026 to 2027. The other use case is adding frequency on markets that used to be flown with widebodies, with Toulouse as his example. Air Canada has moved its year-round Montreal to Toulouse service to the A321XLR.
On what surprised him, Draganovici talks about the cabin. He says the new Air Canada design runs through the whole aircraft and calls the cabin spacious, based on the time he has spent sitting in it.
Pilot commonality and the Signature Class cabin
On fleet commonality Draganovici calls it a full benefit. Air Canada already flies A320s and A321s, so the A321XLR lets the airline grow the same pool of pilots into a larger fleet. Asked which superhero the aircraft would be, he picks the member of The Incredibles family who can stretch herself: it can fly to Toronto and it can fly to Toulouse.
Elbushra calls the A321XLR a game changer that opens new destinations, adds capacity to existing ones and gives more seasonal flexibility, which he says would not have been possible without it. He says it is the first aircraft in the Air Canada fleet with the lie-flat Signature Class business product on a narrowbody. Air Canada's A321XLR has 182 seats, 14 of them in Signature Class. In their messages to Airbus, Elbushra thanks the team and says the airline looks forward to taking the aircraft into the fleet, while Draganovici points to the evolution of the A320 family from a design of the late 1980s to an aircraft that now flies long-haul.
