Originally Posted by
Pugilistic Animus
So I take it that the A380 has not yet amortized the huge spending done on her development
Originally Posted by
Commander Taco
According to the Wall Street Journal, as of 2019 USD$17billion invested with less than half the required 750 frames to break even sold.
Airbus have written off the costs of developing each airframe as those costs were incurred. Hence stopping any programme - including the A380 - early only costs Airbus the actual price of closing down, such as scrapping tooling, laying off people, etc.
Of course, they won't see any profits from airframes they didn't sell
Boeing's "Program Accounting" method defers the start-up costs of an aircraft building project and then pays these deferred costs down over an 'Accounting block' of aircraft. If the Accounting block is not reached, the manufacturer has to write off any development costs not yet amortised. For example, in the case of the B747-8, Boeing has so far had to write off $US1.383 Billion ($569 million post-tax in 2015 and in 2016 another after tax charge of $814 million), there may be other charges in 2021 & 2023 as production comes to an end