Delta Air Lines is expected to introduce an extremely premium heavy Airbus A321neo configuration with a whopping 44 First Class seats.
Behind those First Class seats will be 54 Comfort Plus seats and a mere 66 economy class seats.
This was first pointed out by aviation insider JonNYC, detailing the configuration and the possible reason for it.
In short, Delta has several Airbus A321neo deliveries sitting in storage as they await certification of the Safran Vue seats, which are the lie-flat Delta One pods that will be installed on these jets. Instead of waiting any longer and wasting its new deliveries in the desert, the airline has opted to fly them anyway, just with a different configuration.
All of this was confirmed by Delta, according to Zach Griff of The Points Guy. The airline aims to get these jets in the air next year.

A standard Airbus A321neo for Delta has 20 First Class, 60 Comfort Plus, and 114 economy class seats, totaling 194.
Albeit temporary, this new configuration with the 44 First Class seats makes the current seat map look incredibly dense. Once the Safran Vue seats are certified, however, the aircraft will be reconfigured to the originally planned 16 Delta One, 12 Premium Select, and 110 economy class seats.
Interestingly, I think this goes to show how much longer Delta expects the certification of the Safran Vue seats to take. After all, it’s not like the A321neo deliveries are going to be able to take to the skies tomorrow, as the airline expects them to enter service in 2026. If the airline were truly confident that its Delta One pods would be certified next year (or even the first half of the following year), it wouldn’t choose to go through the hassle of installing a completely different configuration just for several months.
I think it’ll be cool to see this ultra-premium heavy A321neo configuration, but this isn’t necessarily the ideal situation from Delta’s perspective.
Featured image by the author.