• won't Etihad get quite a reduction on the price for this aircraft
• you can't call this aircraft new after all the severe testing the plane has gone through
They did for sure get a big fat discount on these A380! But most importantly Airbus was able to them to sign up for many A330-200/300 and A340 as well. The A380 must of coma as a bonus for Etihad.
A test plane is NOT a new plane. Many airline has test planes in there fleet. UA has B777 test plans, LH has the A340-300 test plane. I think the A319 and A321 test plans was sold as well.
Weird to see a SA plane with an F-**** reg.
But isn't it dangerous to have a duty-free shop and a gym on board an aircraft? How are they preventing stuff falling during turbulence?