Writing in The Guardian daily, Tom Enders said that this year was a "moment of truth for aviation" where the industry could either take "significant action together ... or as the time we lost control of our destiny and left it to others to 'solve' our challenges for us."

Enders acknowledged that the industry had "to do a lot more" but added that it had "also been doing a bad job at communicating both our progress on the environment and the fundamental role that aviation now plays in the world economy."

"It is essential that we rise to the environmental challenge or, as an industry, we can fully expect that regulatory authorities and governments will take matters into their own hands," he wrote.

"We must come together and move to the forefront of eco-efficiency. We must and we can."

He said that European industry targets of cutting CO2 emissions by 50 percent, nitrous oxides by 80 percent and noise by 50 percent by 2020 compared to technologies available in 2000 were "within reach".

Airbus announced earlier this month that it suffered an operating loss of 881 million euros (1.4 billion dollars) last year despite record orders for its aircraft, forcing parent company EADS into the red.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.