Hello MTQatar,
No. No decision has been as yet on the A340-500. The discounts from Airbus do not seem in line with one would have expected for an aircraft yet to be certified and only with a handful of orders and customers.
Boeing is trying to place the B777-200LR in the market.
Agree on CCQ. But remember that the competition will not be between Airbus and Boeing but will at the end of the day be between GE (B777) and RR (A340).
It has been known that RR simply ignored QTR on the first A340-500 deal offering no airframe credits as they had the monopoly on the engine choice. GE are not known to do that and are expected to shave off a huge sum of the B777 price in terms of concessions and credits.
Have you been inside an A340-500? No difference than an A330 or an A300. The B777 has the advantage of cabin size where the Airline will place additional goodies for the pax.
Do you know that QTR has made Airbus to sign an NDA before QTR can share the cabin layout designs proposed by QTR for the A380. QTR is having the VIP Cabin designers working on the A380 cabin layout for QTR. One wonders how the A380 aircraft will make money if total proposed pax is only 450 pax???
have a nice day.