If I were crazy enough to invest in airlines, which I’m not, I’d be putting my money on the guys working on smaller more efficient planes instead of jumbo monsters.
10 years from now NextGen (the GPS based air traffic control system) will be live and it will be MUCH easier to do direct flights from small airport to small airport, meaning less people per flight, meaning no need for 600+ passenger planes.
Check this out if you want to see what the solution to the current airline mess will be. Here’s a hint… it isn’t going to be fixed by any new plane design.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4219569.html