Airbus says no room for more talks in cancelled Japan jet deal

Airbus on Thursday said its decision to cancel a $2.2 billion jet order from Skymark Airlines was final, rejecting the Japanese carrier's suggestion that talks were still ongoing. The European aircraft maker said this week it had informed Skymark that its purchase of six A380 superjumbos ‘has been terminated’, just hours after the airline said it was still locked in tough negotiations. Skymark's Tokyo-listed shares plunged in the wake of Airbus announcement, wiping out a quarter of its market value -- amounting to about $64 million -- in just two sessions. Skymark had on Tuesday acknowledged that the deal was in trouble as a sharp decline in the yen since late 2012 jacked up the cost of purchasing the jets, while it faced increasingly fierce competition. The carrier's shares closed down 3.24 per cent at 209.0 yen Thursday before it announced that its loss in the three months to June had ballooned to 5.80 billion yen ($56 million), four times higher than its shortfall the previous year, according to AFP.