Shares in EADS fell heavily this morning after the European aerospace manufacturer admitted that delays to the Airbus A380 superjumbo would cost it €4.8 billion (£3.2 billion) in lost earnings by 2010, and several customers said they would reconsider orders.

At one point EADS shares, traded on the Paris arm of Euronext, were suspended after they breached their 10 per cent loss limit. They were still 7 per cent lower once trading was allowed to continue.

The shares fell as thousands of jobs in the UK, France and Germany were on the line after Christian Streiff, EADS' embattled chief executive, said he would be seeking a 30 per cent cut in overhead costs within the next four years.

The move immediately threatened to trigger political fallout in Germany, where politicians were swift to argue the country should not bear the brunt of the losses.

Investors' loss of confidence came as Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic and other international airlines warned that the fresh Airbus delays of almost a year were prompting them to review their previous orders.

It also came as The Times revealed that Emirates, Airbus's biggest customer, was in talks with American rival Boeing over sharing its order.

Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline, told The Times: "This is a very serious issue for Emirates and the company is now reviewing all its options."

Sources close to Boeing said Emirates was considering ditching half its 43 A380 orders and buying the new 747-8 instead. That could cost Airbus a further $6 billion in lost revenue.

Virgin Atlantic is also reconsidering its order. It said: "The depth of the delay has serious implications."

The brinkmanship could also be part of the intense negotiations that are now under way to claim compensation from Airbus. The compensation bill alone could reach €2 billion, analysts said.

Malaysia Airlines, the loss-making national carrier, said today that it will also consider and assess all available alternatives and options, although it stressed that its business plan was not in jeopardy.

The A380 delivery delays, which have reached nearly two years, mean that the first A380 will not be ready until next October.

The A380 has hit a string of production delays this year primarily because its engineers have struggled with the installation of the 500km of electric wiring that each aircraft requires.

Christian Streiff, Airbus’s chief executive, was forced to delay the jet yet again yesterday because of these production difficulties. Only one of the $300 million aircraft will now be delivered next year, to Singapore Airlines, down from the nine proposed in June and an original target of 15. The airline had been expecting to start commercial services with the A380 next April.

Airbus will now deliver 13 A380s in 2008 and 25 in 2009, and reach full production of 45 a year by 2010. M Streiff also revealed that the loss in earnings from this latest delay would be €2.8 billion by 2010 — on top of the €2 billion lost as a result of delays announced in June.

Despite the problems, M Streiff said that "all customers are on board" and there was "no significant risk" of cancellations to its 134 orders for the A380.

This succession of bad news for Airbus comes as shareholders in BAE Systems, which owns 20 per cent of the European aircraft builder, vote today on whether to sell the stake. BAE’s management has recommended the £1.9 billion sale.

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