Not yet they haven't, the term leverage comes to mind.

Not much leverage available if pax won't travel on the Max in the future!

This is just good business.

The negotiating position of Boeing is as weak as it is ever likely to be and they will be desperate for some good news so this is very best the time to make a deal knowing that the current issues will have to be resolved before any actual purchase and because it is only an LOI there is no commitment and the eventual outcome may be to enable a better deal from Airbus.

The majority of pax won't even be aware.

lots of jobs for baggage handlers then no containers on the old design !

Most A320 operators never used containers to start with, but a rather large number still do. It does eat into your payload, both weight and volume wise, but on the other hand it allows for shorter turn-arounds, less manual handling and reduced staff requirements; a handling agent I know of does containerised A320 series with a ramp team of just two persons, and still easily achieves minimum turn-around times. One of their customers, incidentally, is BA.

Most of the big ones in Europe do. BA, Iberia, Lufty, Swissy, Austrian (but not SN), Finnair, AF mostly (I don't think AF and BA do on the A318's though). Mind you the loco's don't, but some of their airfields barely have a set of stairs nevermind equipment to load containers.

On the other side of the world, I seem to remember NZ and Jetstar using them.

The US is of course the big exception, but they're "special" in many many ways.

If you recall the BA 737 fleet finished up in Gatwick for the end of their service to get rid of baggage handlers at Heathrow and shorten turnaround times , so wouldn't be surprised to see it being used to get a very good deal out of Airbus as there is no 'order' yet ..........

In my view there is very little difference between accepting an exceptionally low price to sign a letter of intent for the MAX in the current circumstance and accepting a cash payment to sign a letter of intent. Both as like accepting a bribe. I would like to see IAG charged with accepting a bribe and let them defend their actions. It is about time we set the bar a lot higher for corporate ethics and start sending directors to goal for poor ethics. If directors had gone to goal during the GFC maybe we would not have had MAX deaths.

I think thats very much the case sign an LOI and then ask Airbus what they can offer. Good business id say