European aircraft manufacturer Airbus warned its 2009 gross new orders will drop significantly, as much as two thirds as the airlines face fall in traffic.

Airbus' Chief Commercial Officer John Leahy forecasted new orders for commercial aircraft will range between 300 and 400 in 2009 (before any cancellations) down from 900 in the past year, the Financial Times reported.

Airbus reported a drop of 42 percent in orders in 2008 totaling 777 orders for jets after 123 cancellations. In 2007 the company had 1,341 orders. However with those figures it surpassed Boeing.

Airbus said that its orders last year were worth $100 billion.