Ok, whose business are we specifically talking about here? I’m not sure if those 10 or so examples have been re-sold by Boeing as of yet, but here is how they can easily alleviate the situation. If no customer will take the aircraft, since their manufacturer won’t support them, Boeing should just break apart the aircraft, now. Take all usable parts like engines, landing gear, etc., and sell them to a leasing company like ILFC or GECAS. Why sell off your competitors whole product? Sell the parts.

As far as the A340 vs. the MD-11 goes, I agree the A340 has been more successful. And to this date, no A340 has blown up off the coast of New York shortly after takeoff from JFK for reasons unknown, so I guess that makes it a better aircraft than the 747, right?

Lastly, I’d like to re-set this whole car analogy. I don’t know how it is in Europe, but this is how it is here. If customer A purchases vehicle A from dealership A, drives it for about 6-10 years then trades in vehicle A to dealership B to purchase a vehicle from dealership B, contrary to what you may think, dealership A isn’t going to give 2 $hits that customer B purchased vehicle A from dealership B. Afterall, customer B is going to be taking vehicle A into dealership A for maintainance, so dealership A is still going to making money off that car. Who cares where is was purchased from?

Here’s the bottom line, you don’t abandon your product, period.