Lower (and potentially significantly lower future) fuel prices actually work against the business case for B787.
Exactly. Management look like utter geniuses for having a fleet of old, fully depreciated, fuel guzzling aeroplanes in the current market environment.
It's costing Virgin Australia more to operate a newish 777 between Australia and LA than it is for QANTAS to do the same thing in an older 747 at the moment.
It's a remarkable turnaround but entirely due to luck rather than good planning and foresight.