"So it is clearly often a problem of national pride"
Very true, back in the old days then there was Boeing, Lockheed and MacDonnel Douglas there was a lot of bashing going on too. Now there just Boeing and Airbus but the bashing continues, LOL. Anyway I am glad Europe has a state of the art Aerospace industry. Airbus will keep Boeing honest and vice versa, my Dad flew a few years for Luftansa, great airline, IMHO the best.
The 380 is an amazing airplane, long term it is a real threat to Boeing. The 350 as planned ain't gonna cut it. Boeing on the other hand has pushed the 747 about to the limit, I see the 380 replacing it and Boeing not contesting that market. I could be wrong but does the world need two super sized airliners?
I think the real question for the A380 is how huge is the market and are the predictions especially for asia true.
So everything is possible for the A380 and in terms of the new 747 we will see what the product will look like in the end. Until now they have as far as i know two orders for the freighter version. The very close realtions to japan can help Boeing here. the japanese are the biggest operator of 747 planes and boeing should really do everything to prevent Airbus from entering the japanese market.
The four engine A340 has huge problems to compete against the 777 and as you said the 787 will sell better than the A350 in the present version.
So the question is should Airbus invest additional money and time to change the A350 or should they accept a lower market share in this segment and concentrate on a complete new replacement in the future. especially the additional time would be a huge problem. The A350 will sell with longterm Airbus customers and the situation could be comparable to the 737 against the A320 at the moment. In my opinion the replacement of the A320 at the ned of the decade or even later is much more important looking at the market size and the very good position of Airbus there.
I would like to see the inside financial numbers . The developing costs of the A350 are much lower than the costs of the 787 only half the amount ( at least that what is published). So it could make sense
in terms of ROI and other financial key numbers for Airbus to accept a lower market share but these are informations that i will never get.
The problem is that my knowledge about the technical site is more than just limited. I am good at numbers but the real question is how much better the 787 is.
THis is really a very interesting business in terms of the product but also in terms of the financial site.
by the way i share your opinion about Lufthansa.
Very good service, planes and a good education programs.
But also a very solid and good management that made the right decisions at the right time ( although sometimes tough). Lufthansa published very very good numbers in the last years while a lot of airlines have huge problems with increasing costs and competition from low cost airlines.