"but there must be some benefits too. "

Why? Because they built it, there must be a reason? There are many unsound reasons for decisions, and many decisions made for little or no reason.

As I said, there are accusations of 'wishful thinking' on both sides. An interesting corollary is that if Boeing is wrong, there will not be a Boeing in 10 years. If Airbus is wrong, then the Euro tax payer is out some money on a prize pig. Airbus will continue along more-or-less.

Boeing knows this. The Boeing execs know this. That mast be factored in.

Now here is where I am talking outside my expertise, check the following:
So far, Airbus has 'mee too-d' Boeing in every market and every product. A few more seats, a bit more efficient. A bit lower costs, and a better human-interface paradigm (interchangeable cockpit controlls). This is the first time, to my knowledge, Airbus has ever tried to 'out big idea' Boeing... Its different than exceeding a clearly defined engineering mark and a clearly defined (and I might say defined by Boeing!) market. Lets see if it works...

Davin L.