Airbus might jettison A380

PARIS— Airbus said Monday it will stop making the costly A380 superjumbo if it can’t strike a long-term deal with the airline Emirates for a steady supply of the planes.

Abandoning the A380 would be a disappointing defeat for Airbus, which spent many years and many billions developing the double-decker behemoth, even as skeptics questioned the whether it could generate enough demand to justify its cost and the bigger runways it requires.

Airbus chief salesperson John Leahy told reporters Monday, when Airbus otherwise reported a record number of overall plane deliveries for 2017, that “if we can’t work out a deal with Emirates, there is no choice but to shut down the program.”

He said the Dubai-based airline is “the only one who has the ability” to commit to a minimum of six planes a year for a minimum of eight to 10 years, which Airbus needs to make the program viable.

Emirates, the government-owned, Dubai-based long-haul carrier, declined to immediately comment.

The A380 drew worldwide attention when launched a decade ago, but has always struggled to win enough customers. Airbus delivered just15 of the planes last year, and aims to deliver 12 more this year and could scale down production to six a year after that, CEO Fabrice Bregier said.

Emirates now relies solely on the Airbus 380 and the Boeing 777 for its flights, making it the largest operator of both