"Of course the B773-ER beats the pants of both of them on fuel economy.
Does it really??? Maybe the 744 but not the A340-300"
Are you kidding me? 773ER is by far the most efficient a/c in the fleet. Simultaneous flight plans were run for quite a while on the 773ER and 346 for JFK, and the differences were huge. ER is faster, carries way more payload and burns approx 17T less fuel per sector. The ER actually carries more payload than the 744, although of course has less seats.