QANTAS: First International A321XLR route announced — Brisbane to Manila

According to a story on ET, the first international A321XLR route will be Brisbane to Manila, commencing on 25 October 2026. But don’t get too excited, because there won’t be any flat beds, just domestic Business Class recliners.

So, aside from a newer, quieter, more highly pressured plane, it’s a downgrade. You get recliners instead of lie-flat sleepers, and a one-aisle narrow-body instead of two on the larger, wide-body A330 that currently flies the route.

On the upside, this route moves to daily instead of its current five-times-per-week service.

For av-geeks, this was always coming. Since the first red-tailed A321XLR entered service with Qantas in September 2025, the aircraft has been working Australia’s east coast trunk routes and stretching its legs on trans-Tasman runs. But Qantas has a;lways made clear that the jet’s true purpose lies in ‘thin’ international routes. That is routes where lower capacity is required, or greater frequency.

Why Manila?

There has been significant demand for flights between Australia and the Philippines. Statistics from Tourism Research Australia indicate 162,000 trips a year. The route includes a mix of leisure, business, and family travel.

For Qantas, the A321XLR offers better fuel efficiency compared with the widebody A330 on a mid-haul sector of just under seven hours.

A321XLR aircraft downside

The current A330 on the route features Qantas’ international business class. That means fully flat beds with direct aisle access and seatback entertainment. That’s great on the overnight QF98 from Manila, which departs at 9:45 pm and lands in Brisbane at 7:25 am.

The downside of the new A321XLR aircraft is that it is fitted only with Qantas’ domestic-style business cabin, with 20 recliner seats in a 2-2 configuration, no seatback screens, and direct aisle access for only half of those seats.

In Economy, despite the 36 extra-legroom Economy Plus seats, overall the onboard experience is more narrowbody than long-haul.

If they put one of the newer XLR deliveries on the route, it will have an extra toilet onboard. These new cabins have sacrificed a row of economy seats to add a third lavatory. There is one lavatory for crew and Business Class passengers, and two, and soon 3 for Economy passengers. That will improve the overall passenger-to-loo ratio from 1:66 to 1:50.

Aside from the loo question, premium travellers used to flatbeds will view this as a downgrade on a 7+ hour overnight route.

Flatbeds are coming

But this will change if you can delay your Manila trip until 2028. By then, Qantas will begin taking delivery of 16 internationally-configured A321XLRs, with fully lie-flat business suites and HD seatback entertainment at every seat

2PAXfly takeout

I can see that from a network perspective, this could make sense. They are swapping out comfort for frequency on this ‘thin’ route. It is also a way of trying out these new aircraft on international medium-haul.

From a premium traveller perspective? Not so good. Narrowbody business class on a near-seven-hour overnight sector is less compelling.

Until the flatbed XLRs arrive in 2028, Brisbane–Manila passengers may notice the downgrade from the A330’s international cabin.