Noel Forgeard, co-chief executive of EADS, the parent company of Airbus, stressed the growing importance of fuel efficiency in aircraft design and said Airbus would launch a new range of planes in response to changes in the market.

"If kerosene is very expensive, what is important is to have an ultra-light plane, even if the cost of production is higher," he said.

Airbus has begun investigating the use of composite materials, which offer weight-saving advantages. The company is working on a new range of planes to replace the A320 family, a collection of small, medium-range aircraft with a single aisle.

"Today we are actively preparing the launch -- at a date I'm not going to reveal -- of new generations of medium-range aircraft with fuselages that are mostly made out of composite materials with very low-cost production," he said.

The main challenge for 2008-09 would be to produce these low-cost composite materials, he said.

Airbus leads its US rival Boeing in terms of sales of small, single-aisled aircraft, which are favoured by low-cost airlines such as Ryanair.

The European company received 579 orders for the A320 for the 11 months to end-November 2005, while Boeing recorded 569 orders for its rival model, the Boeing 737, over the whole of last year.

The emphasis on fuel efficiency by plane manufacturers comes after a surge in the price of kerosene, which has soared in line with sharp increases in the price of crude oil over 2005.

Many airlines have hiked their prices by levying a fuel surcharge on tickets to compensate for the sudden increase in costs.

Forgeard said that Airbus' budget for research on new technologies has been doubled to 450 million euros per year from 2006 and in 2007-08.

He also said that the company would review its A340 family of planes, which trailed Boeing's 777 model in 2005.

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