Airbus SAS's German workers fear the loss of as many as 8,000 jobs at the plane maker's German factories in a cost-cutting reorganization following delays of the A380 superjumbo jet.

Airbus, the world's largest maker of commercial aircraft, may sell manufacturing sites, buy more parts from outside suppliers and move work now done in Germany to the company's factory in France, Horst Niehus, a works council leader at the company's Hamburg factory, told union members in a memo.