Just for fun, let's add another source that wasn't cited previously as far as I can remember:
http://business.time.com/2013/10/23/...ensive-turkey/
Some highlights again:
“The A380 is, by definition, an uneconomic airplane unless you’re a state-owned enterprise with subsidies,” said Delta ceo Richard Anderson in a recent speech. He’s making a reference to Emirates and Singapore Airlines, who own about 45% of all planned deliveries. Emirates has 35 A380s operating out of a total order of 90. According to aviation expert Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at Teal Group, there have been 167 net A380 orders over the last decade. Airbus planned to build 30 A380s annually but the current rate is less than 17 per year. “The people who are in the order book are the order book,” Aboulafia says, meaning the potential to add new orders is limited.
Sounds like Airbus isn't even coming close to its own projections to break even. It also sounds like Delta's CEO is pretty much saying what so many herein have said: Singapore and Emirates are state-owned enterprises that benefit from subsidies that are unavailable to non-state owned enterprises. Funny how Emirates and Singapore have such great Suite Classes on the A380 and have almost half of the orders, isn't it?
As things now stand, it is unlikely that the A380 will produce anything but a write-down for Airbus and its parent company EADS (soon to be called Airbus Group), which invested something on the order of $25 billion to get the first A380 airborne. The jet lists for about $400 million, but you can make them an offer: the going rate is somewhere north of $200 million.
Most airlines have canceled further orders. Lufthansa canceled 3 last year. Air France canceled the remaining 2 on its original order of 12. Virgin Atlantic has delayed all of its orders until 2018--giving it time to perhaps cancel entirely. Only Emirates ordered more. Emirates can't save it.
To boot, Airbus now has so discounted the A380 (about half price!) that it also means Airbus would have to sell even MORE than its originally projected 750 to break even. Which is why it can't break even. It's a loser for Airbus.
Not to mention, when the current A380s hit the secondary markets, that will kill the new models Airbus might have been able to sell. Plus all the lease companies that purchased significant numbers assuming the A380 would be a winner, which now will have to further discount those, undercutting Airbus even more in the future. Bad bet, Airbus. The A380 was all glam and not enough market.