No whizzing required. Single aisle Airbus backlog of orders is now north of 5600 a/c - 5063 being NEOs. The current production rate is now 46 a/c per month, with plans to raise this to 60 in 2019, allegedly.
Airbus have a track record of accommodating new orders within their delivery framework, but that may be volume related, and/or dependent on how EK approach them. Not to mention the potential for EK to buy off slots from operator(s) unknown, or take slots that have been cancelled.
The A320 may also be more attractive to EK as cargo is palletised, whereas B737 is not.
FZ merger may also be tricky due to internal politics as a different part of the ruling family are involved. Of course HH may just lower the boom, and it does make perfect sense to us expats. But then, what do we know...........