[Updated with comment from Skymark Airlines]

Airbus and Skymark Airlines are close to reaching a settlement regarding financial penalties over the Japanese carrier's last-minute cancellation of its order for six A380s.

Japanese media reports claim that Skymark’s chief executive Shinichi Nishikubo has met with Airbus representatives and agreed to reach a settlement by the end of October.

"What we have agreed is that we're going to resolve the problems until the end of October," the airline told Flightglobal. "Everything is currently under negotiation."

When contacted, Airbus said: “We don’t comments on our discussions with our customers, including commercial matters. We can say right now on this matter is that Airbus is reserving all its rights and remedies.”

Skymark ordered the A380s in February 2011. Airbus however terminated the order in June, shortly before the first aircraft was due to be delivered, after the airline indicated that it did not have the necessary finance to complete the delivery.

At that time, the first aircraft (MSN162) had already flown while a second A380 had been assembled though its Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines had not been installed.

Source: Cirium Dashboard