I believe the RNP authorization doesn't refer to anything more than a deal has been made with Airbus. The DAL Airbus fleet has been simulator flying RNP's forever waiting on that day when Airbus would flip the giant RNP switch in France that allowed us to legally fly an RNP approach in the aircraft. The problem was that Airbus wanted a boatload of money to flip the RNP switch to On. (Same shakedown Boeing gives us on buying post delivery takeoff data.)
Well, that's a lot of words to say: Connecting the dots makes CAAC think that we have completed a big Airbus order and they flipped the RNP switch for "free".