Qantas' New A321XLR

[anat0l]

Ill have to observe in Y when i inevitably take it, but from J it seems to be significantly faster as they used 2 crew in J. In Y it's an extra 3 rows so whilst it would be slower it should really be about an extra few minutes so it may be more of a crew familiarisation issue?

It would not only be 3 extra rows (up to another 18 passengers), but if there are only 4 crew, then 2 working J, that means only 2 working Y, cf. a B737 where it would be one working J and 3 working Y. I haven't been in the latter half of Y cabin for ages, but I thought in a B737 one FA works the rows in approximately the back half of Y while 2 work from the front. The A321 has 10% more Y passengers.

Probably has got to do with crew familiarisation, i.e. time to smooth it out, but I also thought that 4 crew for 200 passengers was pushing it in terms of crew to pax ratio (for safety purposes, for one).

 

[milehighclub]

The A321 has 5 crew, 2 in J and 3 in Y. There are 5 jump seats, with the 5th being a swing out one near the toilets.