In 2026, Delta Air Lines plans to introduce a very premium domestic narrow body aircraft, with a staggering 44 first class seats. However, this isn’t by design, but is instead to make the most of a frustrating situation. I first covered this last week, but this has now been confirmed by the airline, so we have some more details about what we can expect.
Delta planning 164-seat A321neos, with 44 first class seats
JonNYC was first to report that Delta intends to introduce a new Airbus A321neo configuration featuring dozens of first class seats. Specifically, this configuration is expected to feature 44 first class seats, 54 extra legroom economy seats, and 66 standard economy seats.
As a point of comparison, Delta’s standard A321neos have 194 seats, including 20 first class seats, 60 extra legroom economy seats, and 114 standard economy seats.
Zach Griff reports that the current plan is for these planes with 44 first class seats to enter service as of the summer of 2026, and that up to seven of these planes will be flying.
With the amount of premium demand nowadays, plus given how lucrative loyalty programs are, I’ve long argued that US carriers should increase the average size of their first class cabins. However, introducing a cabin with 44 first class seats is quite the stretch! So, what’s actually going on here?
Delta is making the best of A321neos in storage
I’ve written about how Delta plans to introduce a new subfleet of Airbus A321neos, which will be in a premium configuration. The airline plans to add 21 of these A321neos to its fleet, specifically for premium transcontinental flights.
These planes are expected to feature just 148 seats, including 16 business class seats, 12 premium economy seats, 54 extra legroom economy seats, and 66 standard economy seats. However, several of these planes are now in storage, as Delta is having issues with getting the business class seats certified (that’s very Lufthansa of them, eh?).
With there seemingly being no end in sight to these certification issues, the plan is for Delta to put these planes into service with modified interiors. Keep in mind that the premium economy seats on these planes are comparable to domestic first class, so the idea is that in place of the 16 business class seats, the airline will instead temporarily install 32 first class seats.
Parking planes for years is obviously costly, so this seems like a logical enough way for Delta to get some use out of these planes, until those certification issues can be worked out. Besides, the airline can temporarily install these first class seats on the plane, and then later install them on other newly delivered A321neos.
Delta claims that it will share more details in 2026, as it “continually explores new ways to make the most of our fleet to better serve our customers and support our business,” and that “select A321neo aircraft are expected to begin their entrance into service next year with an updated seat configuration designed with comfort in mind.”
What’s pretty wild to me is that Delta took delivery of the first of these planes in October 2024, and it’s expected to enter service in the summer of 2026 with modified interiors. So after the plane is parked for nearly two years, it’ll then get a temporary interior.
Delta must be having some really massive, Lufthansa level certification issues with its new business class seats on those planes for things to play out this way. After all, Delta wouldn’t configure these planes in this way if it expected that the seats would be certified by late 2026 or early 2027, as it wouldn’t be worth the effort.
With 44 first class seats, they better increase staffing on these planes, or else service will be challenging. For that matter, it’ll be hard to put these on actually premium routes, since I can’t imagine there’s enough space in the ovens to actually heat 44 first class meals.
Bottom line
In 2026, Delta has plans to introduce a new Airbus A321neo layout with a staggering 44 first class seats. What’s going on here is that Delta has brand new A321neos that are supposed to get flat beds, but the airline seemingly can’t get those seats certified.
So rather than keeping these planes in storage forever, Delta plans to fly up to seven of these with standard domestic first class seats in the space of the business class cabin. I just find the timeline here to be pretty wild, given that we’re talking about a plane that was delivered in October 2024 entering service in the summer of 2026 with temporary interiors. So when will these planes actually fly with the intended interiors? 2028, best case scenario?
What do you make of Delta’s planned premium A321neo configuration situation?
