The Airbus military A400M military transport aircraft will cost 11.3 billion euros (16.7 billion dollars) more than planned, a German press report said Tuesday.
Financial Times Deutschland said Airbus boss Thomas Enders plans to ditch the project unless agreement is reached with clients to share the extra costs, the newspaper said, DPA reported.
The newspaper said Enders estimated there was a 50-per-cent chance of reaching an agreement by an end-of-January deadline.
If no deal is reached, "some 100 A400M engineers could be transferred to the new A350 commercial aircraft," the newspaper said.
More than 40,000 European jobs are linked to the A400M project, 14,000 of them in Germany.
The two major clients for the military transporter, Germany and France, have failed to agree on what concession to make to Airbus, a subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space company (EADS).
France is reportedly willing to make concessions in order to save the project, while Germany wants to stick to the original contract.
Some 120 aircraft had been ordered for around 20 billion euros, but the cost overruns will make the aircraft vastly more expensive.
The plane made its maiden flight on December 11 in Spain.