Airbus is battling to reduce the amount it pays back to government investors who helped fund the development of its poorly selling A380 superjumbo.

Senior staff from the pan-European plane-maker are understood to have held high-level meetings with top BEIS officials last month to try to negotiate reducing repayments.

Governments helped fund development of the aircraft through controversial “repayable launch investment” (RLI), sinking hundreds of millions into the plane to help finance the multi-billion development cost.

In return for taking on this risk - sometimes called "launch aid" - Airbus agreed to make a repayment to government for each aircraft it sells.