New A330 for Qantas
 

Found this today. Looks like VH-EBM is now on the flightline in Toulouse. You can see the tail of it in the bottom left.

http://www.pictaero.com/en/pictures/picture,62362

Why the 'pod' arrangement under the nose wheel in that photo?

The A330F has a taller nose gear that doesn't fit in the existing design (to level the fuselage). Thus the 'bulge'.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...r-to-ease.html

Thanks Anthony.

The bulge is just plain ugly (and a bit of a bandaid solution). Why not lower the main gear, and add smaller engines.

Airbus, French for "anything goes".

And here is VH-EBM fully painted.

http://storage.canalblog.com/21/24/572452/46487654.jpg

EBN and EBM will not have a closet at Doors 2 on either side. This mean a lot of legroom for row 23.

Row 23 and Row 44 (Doors 2 and 3 exits) will have inflatable seatbelts (airbag of sorts) fitted due new CASA requirements.

as to airbags, CX A330 have them in all seats in Y, while CX 747 which use the same exact seat, do not have the airbags, must be some logic behind that

this relates to the molded back seats

In this case it is in relation to the distance between the seat and the next fixture which will break the forward movement of the customer/seat (when it separates from the cabin floor) in an impact. The next fixture is the cabin crew seat on the bulkhead forward of the exit.

The Dornier 328/328Jet have a sash belt (like a car) for this purpose.

It's the same reason that First Class seats on the Qantas A380 have a shoulder harness as well.