In general terms Boeing's aircraft have a reputation of doing at least what they claim to be able to do...Airbus seem to fall short of claimed performance by some margin as often as not.
Speak to engineers who work on both and they all seem to suggest that airbus are built down to a price and get expensive to operate relatively quicker than Boeings.
The 747-8 seems to me to be the right size...carries lots of people cheaper than the 380 but without dramatically increased infrastructure costs...born by the pax eventually in increased user charges as airport authorities claw back that increased cost....and not just the pax travelling on the 380 but ALL pax, airport users.
A380 seems to me to big...but that is subjective and I am sure beancounters will dissagree given the opportunity to put lots more pax behind the same number of pilots...doesn't make it right though.
I think in the 787,777 and 748 Boeing have a group of aircraft that are going to really give Airbus a race for market share.
Anecdotally at least Boeing build better aeroplanes...stronger and more user friendly from a pilots perspective...recently spoke to a ex Boeing, current airbus pilot...his view was Airbus are very clever but when things go wrong he'd rather be in a Boeing because the user interface is more intuitive.
In the end competition breeds a better product.
If it aint Boeing I'm not going
