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Airbus is a victim of many, many problems. One of the major contributors to the problem is that Airbus was created by putting a bunch of companies from different countries together. Each of those countries has needs and desires of a political nature to keep work in their country. As a result, the development and contruction of tha A380 is spread out over a bunch of factories, and the final assembly is done in a place that requires special transport and manipulation of the incoming parts to build the plane - adding huge amounts of expense and complexity.
A recent wiring issue (some of the harnesses don't fit) was tracked down to one of the regional companies using old software to display diagrams, which gave incorrect wire lengths. That alone will cost an almost 1 year delay.
Beyond that, issues of complexity of operations (for anyone who flies, the turbulance wake requirement on these planes is apparently right now at 6 miles for 4000 feet below.. which is a huge hole in the airspace), requiring airports to set up special gates for passenger traffic, and so on have also tagged this plane as a no-go.
The exchange rate differences Euro to american dollar is also a huge influence in all of this, with Boeing getting about a 40% price advantage over the Airbus planes right now.
Companies like Fedex are "on time all the time" types of buisnesses, and considering that Airbus really can't say when the planes would be delivered, it is pretty much a no brainer to go to Boeing and get an assured date. Save money, get it on time, and keep the show on the road. Not a hard choice.
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