Questionable: Qantas Will Fly Its A321XLR to Manila
Qantas’ brand new Airbus A321XLRs can fly up to 8,700km. Eventually, the flying kangaroo plans to operate a sub-fleet of these planes which are specifically configured to take full advantage of that range, with lie-flat Business seats and on-board amenities designed for longer flights.
But the A321XLRs in Qantas’ current fleet are only designed for short-haul flying. They have recliner seats in Business Class, no seat-back entertainment screens, and there are just two toilets shared between 180 Economy passengers. (Qantas has committed to installing a third one down the track, after a customer backlash.)
I’ve flown on the Qantas Airbus A321XLR from Sydney to Melbourne, and the plane is perfectly suitable for that length of flight.
But I’m scratching my head at Qantas’ recent decision to schedule this plane onto the Brisbane-Manila route from late October 2026. This seems to me like a case of “just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should”. Like putting tomato sauce on ice cream.
Qantas currently uses an Airbus A330 on Brisbane-Manila
The 5,788km flight from Brisbane to Manila (depending on how you measure that distance) takes eight hours. The return leg, like almost all of Qantas’ flights from Asia to Australia, operates overnight.
Since relaunching the Brisbane-Manila route in October 2024, Qantas has been using a wide-body Airbus A330-200 with 27 lie-flat Business Class seats.
Qantas will fly an A321XLR to Manila from October
The airline will switch its Brisbane-Manila route to the smaller Airbus A321XLR, which is configured for domestic flights, in October.
At the same time, Qantas will increase the frequency on this route from 5x weekly to daily. That’s a plus, but I don’t think it makes up for the vastly inferior in-flight experience that passengers can expect.
The wrong product at the wrong price
So, with a significantly worse Business Class product on board, Qantas is dropping the price… right? Well, no.
The lowest return Business Class fare I can currently see from Brisbane to Manila, while the Airbus A330 is operating, is $4,230. If you book on the A321XLR, you can expect to pay… at least $4,230. In other words, Qantas is charging the same price for a much worse product.
Admittedly, Philippine Airlines also uses an Airbus A321 on its Brisbane-Manila service. But the Philippine Airlines version is specifically designed for longer flights and has lie-flat Business Class seats.
As I wrote last year, flying long-haul in a narrow-body jet can be OK. There are inherent downsides, but it’s manageable if the airline configures the plane with longer flights in mind. Which is not the case here.
Qantas will eventually have long-haul configured A321XLRs
Once Qantas does eventually operate a sub-fleet of A321XLRs designed for long-haul flying, I’m sure Brisbane-Manila will be one of the first routes to see them. (Hopefully, Melbourne-Bali will follow as that’s currently on a Boeing 737.)
These planes will also allow Qantas to eventually open up new routes like Adelaide-Singapore or Canberra-Singapore, which don’t quite have enough demand to fill a larger jet.
But until that sub-fleet arrives, if I needed to fly from Brisbane to Manila, I’d be flying Qantas via Sydney for the Airbus A330. Or choosing another airline.
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