Airbus: From Challenger to Leader

If it took off, Airbus's A-3XX (later called A-380) would end the monopoly of Boeing's 747 in the over-400 seats category. According to company sources, the A-380 would be a double-decker plane with a seating capacity of 555 passengers (137 more than the Boeing 747). The super jumbo would be priced at $213 million and was expected to fly by 2004 (later the launch date was postponed to 2006). The main challenge for Airbus was to raise the funds required to manufacture A-380. Finally, Airbus was able to split the total costs of development of the project as follows: around 40% would be funded by its suppliers such as Saab (Sweden), 30% would be in the form of government loans bought in by partners, and the remaining 30% would be the consortium's own funds...