AIRBUS SAS, the world's largest commercial plane maker, has forecast new orders will fall to 750 planes in 2008, the lowest level in four years because of rising fuel and credit costs.

Orders will probably drop from a record 1,341 last year, Chief Operating Officer John Leahy said yesterday at a news conference in Auckland, where he and Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders met Air New Zealand officials. The company has said sales will be about half of 2007 levels. Jet fuel costs, representing 28 percent of airline operating expenses, rose 16 percent in the past quarter, Bloomberg News said.