Asiana Airlines, one of South Korea's two major airlines, is set to adopt 25 planes of A321-200NEO from France-based Airbus to gradually replace its old A321-200 planes during a period of 2019 to 2025.
33 planes out of Asiana Airlines' 85 planes are A321 and A320 and the planes currently are used for short- to medium-distance flights including Japan, China and Southeast Asia.
Asiana Airlines held a signing event on Tuesday to buy additional 25 A321-200 NEO planes from Airbus. Asiana's chief Kim Soo-Cheon and Airbus' head Fabrice Brégier attended the event.
The small- and medium-sized plane A321NEO is 44.5 meters long, 3.7 meters wide and 11.8 meters high. It costs $115 million per plane. Compared to current A321, the new plane has 180 more seats and can save around 20 percent more fuel by installing new engines.
Kim said, "We believe A321NEO will bring about fuel-saving effects as well as flying distance increase to take its service up a notch."
