Open question:
Has anyone factored the estimated losses to the Airbus consortium?
I’m sure that it’s in the tens of billion$.
A quick search finds that this source echoes my rough guess
https://aviationweek.com/shownews/dubai-airshow/what-went-wrong-airbus-a380
“But after Emirates finally pulled the plug on a large follow-up order that would have saved the program in the winter of 2018, it was up to departing Airbus CEO Tom Enders to finally decide the ending for the A380. It had become clear that Airbus would never recover the €25 billon ($30 billion) or so in research and development costs sunk into the program over the years. And with no new orders keeping production open even at minimal rates, it became unsustainable. Europe’s most ambitious commercial aircraft program post-Concorde had become a gigantic failure and a prime example of management reading the market improperly.”
There is no financial loss since this was a government funded effort. The European taxpayers paid for this, which has been a problem with airbus, competing against Boeing and other commercial manufacturers.
—”Has anyone factored the estimated losses to the Airbus consortium?”
An interesting question.
The $30 Billion is the total package, mostly from taxpayers everywhere. The actual write-down is looking a bit illusive.
That said I did find this nice homage to the fat bird.
https://www.dw.com/en/airbus-a380-the-end-of-a-multibillion-dollar-dream/a-60124995
“”I said to Airbus’ CEO Guillaume Faury: ‘This thing has got real life and legs for us, this is not a funeral, just the last of these great airplanes,’” Clark told DW. “And we will fly the A380 as a very potent aircraft until the mid-2030s, so we’ve got 14 to 15 years before we retire them.””