Passengers unhappy with Air New Zealand’s new 321Neo toilet ratio

Air New Zealand welcomed its newest planes earlier this month, the first domestic A321neo delivered via Airbus Hamburg GMBH.

The newest generation of the Airbus workhorse are celebrated for their economy, squeezing even more seats into the domestic-only narrow body cabins.

However, there was one kind of seat passengers say is sadly lacking: toilets.

With 37 rows, all economy, there are 217 seats on the new planes and only three toilets between them.

This domestic cabin variant squeezes 3 extra seats into the existing floor plan, currently flying Trans Tasman and Pacific routes.

“We’re focused on growing our domestic network and this A321neo is especially configured for domestic flying to add almost 50 additional seats per flight compared to our A320s,” said the airline’s chief of customer and sales Leanne Geraghty.

The first 321neo went into service on Tuesday last week. They have five more of these aircraft on order due to arrive over the next three years.

The issue of loos was raised in 2018, ahead of Air NZ’s first intake of A321s. The airline said it had moved one of the toilets to the middle of the cabin to help distribute loos. Still the addition of nine rows and an extra 17 passengers per toilet, makes it a difficult sell over the older A320neos.

Air NZs domestic A321neo adds 9 rows and 17 passengers per toilet on the A320s. Photo / Screenshot, Seat Guru

The A321neos will predominately fly between Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown and Dunedin with a maximum flight time of 2 hours.

With a ratio of 72.1 passengers per toilet, the aircraft are well suited to increasing capacity on the short-haul domestic network.

However, there is another issue with adding an extra third in length to the fuselage. Especially considering there is only a single aisle serving the 200+ passengers.

One Australian-based traveller recently complained about the “tediously long” boarding process.

Although the airline is constricted by Airbus’ design, the passenger told Traveller magazine they felt sorry for anyone who had to regularly fly the plane.

“While the service from Air New Zealand staff was excellent, one must wonder how they feel about this plane.”

Other reviews have also complained about the boarding and disembarking times – similarly the meal service is a protracted affair, thanks to the long single aisle.

With the arrival of Air New Zealand’s first domestic A321s, Geraghty said they had changed the boarding process for these ultra-long cabins.

“We’ll commence boarding five minutes earlier and encourage all customers to be at the gate ready to board at minimum, 15 minutes before departure,” she said.

Air NZ is putting a lavatory mid-cabin in its new A321neos. Photo / File

Toilet troubles on the A321 Neo

Air New Zealand isn’t the only airline to have had loo issues. On November 5, two days after the delivery of Air New Zealand’s new additions, a Jet 2 flight had to divert to Bilbao after the crew reported all of its WCs were out of action.

The A321 flying from Las Palmas to Manchester made an unscheduled detour two hours into the flight, to allow passengers to use the toilet.

The aircraft, which has four lavatories aboard the A321 configuration, reportedly needed its sceptic tank emptied.

Jet2 flight LS782 en route to Manchester from Gran Canaria has just diverted to Bilbao due to the toilets being broken on board and to allow passengers off to use the toilet

— Flight Emergency (@FlightEmergency) November 3, 2022

“Flight LS782 from Gran Canaria to Manchester was diverted to Bilbao yesterday so that the toilet tank could be emptied,” a spokesperson for Jet2 told Simple Flying, following the incident. “Customers remained onboard, before the flight took off again to Manchester.”