European Taxpayers May Pay the Price for Airbus A380’s Demise
- Governments lent billions to develop double-decker plane
- Repayment was expected from sales that didn’t materialize
Photographer: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg
This article is for subscribers only.
The biggest losers in Airbus SE’s decision to wind down production of its A380 superjumbo may be taxpayers in France, Germany, Spain and the U.K., where governments made a big bet on the plane by lending more than 3.3 billion euros ($3.7 billion) to build it.
Airbus agreed to reimburse the loans, together with interest, but payments were tied to A380 deliveries that began in 2007. The company announced last month that it would halt production of the world’s biggest passenger jet in 2021, putting the countries at risk of not getting back the remaining principal.