you'd be very surprised at some of the operators currently in talks to buy the a380. this week two start-ups and a european budget carrier have started the config design stage.
as far as i am aware marsens have made all the required milestone payments in full and ontime for the first pair of aircraft (of six) although the mord on the street is that marsens have paid considerably under the asking price for these aircraft as they where originally schedualed for a cancelled order.