[Billy_bob_bob]

I am certainly no expert, but I am thinking that this is exactly the wrong design at the wrong time. From what I can tell the future belongs to smaller jets landing at smaller airports working on some sort of point-to-point strategy, and this future will place more emphasis on smaller and even civil airports and less on commercial airports. So this new Airbus strikes me as a purposeful move in the wrong direction, and I predict it will be only a modest success at best.

However, I freely admit that I could be totally wrong. It will be interesting to see how this all works out.

[rebel_yell2]

My guess is that you are off-base. I fly over 100,000 miles per year, mostly on 747-400s that are packed to the max, especially in Asia. Those planes carry 400+ persons, so this plane is not really that much larger. It supposedly will have a lower cost per seat. But I think that Boeing is working on a stretch 747 that can compete. These planes definitely can make money on the long-haul trans-pacific routes.

[TomSmedley]

sounds like a government jobs project.

[hchutch]

Perhaps, but something like this would be a great asset for strategic airlift. 555 passengers - that's a battalion of troops.