United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) is forecasting it will need thirty-forty mid-market aircraft to replace its ageing B757s and B767s from mid-2020 and includes A321-200neo(XLR) in the studies, President Scott Kirby told employees in a televised speech seen by Flightglobal.

"We feel really good about the bulk of the narrowbody, the bulk of the widebody fleet. That thirty to forty airplanes for 757, 767 replacements we don't have a good answer for," Kirby said.

In terms of its older generation mid-market fleet, the carrier currently operates fifty-five B757-200s, twenty-one B757-300s, thirty-eight B767-300(ER)s, and sixteen B767-400s. It has 100 B737-10s, thirteen B787-9s, and nine B787-10s on firm order with Boeing - all these aircraft could be potentially used for the replacement of the medium-sized fleet.

The B757-200s are 22.9 years old on average and the B767-300(ER)s - 23.3 years. The B757-300s and the B767-400s are slightly older at an average age of 17.6 and 16.7 years, respectively.

Airbus has not yet confirmed that it will market the ultra-long-range version of the A321neo but is expected to do so. In 2018, it started the deliveries of the A321neo(LR) variant, of which the first was taken by Arkia Israeli Airlines (IZ, Tel Aviv Ben Gurion).