May 28 (Bloomberg) -- Airbus SAS, the world's largest planemaker, said orders for its A380 superjumbo jet may be one- third lower than previously predicted this year as higher fuel costs and an economic slowdown dent demand for travel.

Airbus may receive about 20 orders for the 525-seat airliner in 2008, John Leahy, the company's chief operating officer and senior salesman, said today at the Berlin Air Show. Toulouse, France-based Airbus forecast 30 orders as recently as Feb. 20. Production schedules should not be affected, he said.

Airlines are curbing spending as they face losses that may total $40 billion this year. Airbus, which forecasts as few as 700 orders in 2008, the lowest in four years, says the A380 should do well in a recession because of the double-decker's economies of scale. Boeing Co. says the 787 Dreamliner is more efficient and has sold 896, compared with 192 orders for the A380.

``Traffic is slowing across the board,'' said Doug McVitie, managing director of Arran Aerospace in Dinan, France. ``No sector of the market is exempt. Low cost, high volume -- it's the whole global market.''

Airbus parent European Aerospace, Defence & Space Co. rose 21 cents, or 1.4 percent, to 14.88 euros as the price of oil dropped to a one-week low, Airbus won a $5.17 billion order from Gulf Air and Leahy said that, for those airlines that are buying planes, price increases announced last month are ``sticking.''

Stock Slumped

The stock has slumped 32 percent this year, cutting the company's market value to 12.1 billion euros ($19 billion). Boeing was trading down 76 cents at $82.11 as of 3:27 p.m. in New York and has lost 6.1 percent this year for a value of $61.7 billion.

Airbus has so far delivered four A380s, which have a list price of about $327 million, all to Singapore Airlines Ltd. The bulk of the company's sales come from single-aisle planes in the A320 series.

Boeing has concentrated its resources on the 787, a long- range, medium-sized plane that is priced at about $150 million and saves fuel by using lighter composite materials. The model is designed for direct flights between secondary cities, routes Airbus says will suffer most in a downturn.

EADS posted an operating loss for the first time in its eight-year history last year amid delays and cost overruns on the A380 and Airbus's A400M military-transport program. Airbus announced on May 13 that the A380, already two years late, faces another three months of production delays.

CFO Interview

EADS told investors at its annual meeting on May 26 that the company's earnings before interest and tax this year will be 1.8 billion euros from a loss last year. Chief Financial Officer Hans Peter Ring said in an interview today with Bloomberg TV that earnings may be less than 1.8 billion euros because the company hadn't yet factored in the cost of the delays.

The additional delay to the A380 ``is an issue that might impact the results in 2008,'' Ring said, declining to give an estimate.

Ring also said that current cost-cutting measures intended to offset the weak dollar won't be sufficient to save the 2.1 billion euros annually from 2010 that the company is targeting. ``We have to do more,'' he said in German to Bloomberg TV.

Airbus is also struggling to keep the A400M's delays from exceeding earlier postponements of six months to one year.

India is among the weakest airliner markets right now and carriers there may cancel or delay plane contracts in the next 12 months, Leahy said. Global orders at Airbus last year totaled a record 1,341 planes.

Oil Prices

Oil prices reached an all-time high of $135.09 a barrel on May 22 and have doubled in the past year.

That may add as much as $65 billion to airline costs, contributing to the losses of as much as $40 billion, according to London-based independent aviation analyst Chris Tarry, who previously worked at Dresdner Kleinwort and Commerzbank AG. The industry's record loss was $12 billion in 2001 following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

The order from Gulf Air, the national carrier of Bahrain, is for 15 single-aisle A320-series planes and 20 A330-300 widebodies. Leahy said the aircraft will be delivered over five years starting in 2011. Middle Eastern airlines may boost their combined fleet by more than 60 percent to 900 planes by 2015, according to the Arab Carriers Organization.

Airbus leads Boeing in plane contracts this year. At the end of April, the European company had 397 orders. Its Chicago-based competitor had 378 orders as of May 20, according to its Web site.

Airbus Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders said at the Berlin briefing today that a decision on the sale of a plant in Laupheim, Germany, will be made very soon, adding that he was ``not talking months or weeks.''

The type of funding that Airbus might receive from European governments to support the development of the planned A350 widebody aircraft will likely be determined in ``a few months time,'' Enders said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Reiter in Berlin creiter2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 28, 2008 15:39 EDT