Originally Posted by
Less Hair
Aren't both A and B at 0.5/month right now?
The 747-8F is at 0.5/month - not sure about the A380 (I seem to recall 2/3 per month but wouldn't put money on that).
At 0.5/month, the 747 isn't really a money maker, but it doesn't lose money either and it keeps the line open. Boeing still believes there is a solid market for the 747 Freighter - it's basically without competition in the over 100 ton freighter class and most of those 747F flying around today are getting seriously long in the tooth and will eventually need to be replaced. If they can get it back to 1/month (or higher) then the 747-8 becomes a solid money maker for Boeing.
As Sailvi notes, the 747-8 was a relatively inexpensive derivative of the 747-400 - Boeing didn't need to sell big numbers of the -8 to make money on it. I know what the business case numbers were for the 747-8 when it was launched. It's considered proprietary so I can't post them here, but suffice to say Boeing is easily on track to meet the business case assumptions.