May be a naïve question, but doesn't insurance cover this sort of hiccup?
Insurance will cover any cost of repair over and above the excess/deductible. QF insurers will then fight it out with the handling company's insurers if the handlers weren't QF. Could add a complication if a QF LAE was supervising.
ALAEA Fed Sec
I would doubt very much if QF self insure the A380 hulls, the older B747s maybe, it depends what the book value is, the B747 may have been written down to zero or near to it. They certainly won't self insure their third party liabilities, (billions of cover), or their passenger legal liabilities. They may self insure the staff PA scheme and possibly baggage claims but that would be about it.