Originally Posted by
MechEngr
Airbus spent a huge amount of money on the A380, clean sheet for a new market. Will be lucky to break even on production cost, will never recoup development cost. Oh, look: "In total, the A380 program cost an estimated 30 billion ($33.9 billion) and most of that money came from European taxpayers."
https://www.dw.com/en/airbus-a380-th...-dollar-dream/ Must be nice not to have to shoulder development costs.
Hmmm, I dont think so.
The A380 development costs were apparently
9.5 billion, and following your link - or this link: https://www.dw.com/en/airbus-a380-th...eam/a-60124995 we come to the section "Money down the Drain?". In there is a link: https://www.dw.com/en/german-taxpaye...oan/a-47769831 entitled "German taxpayers may lose on A380 loan". I've also highlighted two key words, may and loan. The article was written nearly 5 years ago.
So just to be clear, I'd dispute DW's statement that "most of the A380 program costs of 30 billion came from European taxpayers", without mentioning the money was loans. Part of the program estimated costs, back in 2000, were obtained from loans (i.e. repayable) from France, Germany and UK of 3.5 billion, as well as refundable advances of
5.9 billion. The large majority of these loans had been repaid by 2019, with a relatively small amount (600 million) in dispute at that time.
Airbus DID shoulder the majority of the A380 development and program costs