Fly long haul over the north pole and suddenly 4 engines makes A LOT of sense!
But how many Great Circle routes like that are there where ETOPS doesn't apply for whatever reason ? I guess there would be Southern Pacific routes where that might apply also.
It seemed a while ago like twins ruled the world in a way, they seemed to be partially responsible for the death of the trijets. Just wondered why Airbus was able to buck the trend.
Does the A340 have a lower operating cost than the 777 ?