It is a common practice for patents to be used as a means of formally disclosing ideas so that nobody else can patent them.
The procedure is generally to take a number of ideas put forward by ones staff and to combine them in a 'portmanteau' patent which you register but do not pursue. This way those ideas cannot be patented by anyone at all.
In this case the various engines, the retracting of engines, the rotation of the fins, and the inward facing seats are all ideas that might one day be useful, and if anyone else were to patent them this might get in the way of ones design work.
Would EADS seriously pursue this patent with all the severe costs of patenting longer term in various countries? No, I don't think so. I think they are just preventing anyone else from getting in their way.