Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) said on Dec. 19 that it was putting on hold plans to buy any new giant aircraft, either Boeing's 747-8 or the Airbus A380 superjumbo, due to the global economic downturn.

The purchase plan "will remain on hold until the company deems market conditions conducive to resuming the selection process," said Rob Henderson, a spokesman for ANA, Japan's second largest carrier.

"We can't read the future," Henderson said. "We can't predict what demand will be like in 2012 and beyond."

Airlines generally have to anticipate demand years in advance when ordering airplanes.

The decision does not affect All Nippon Airways' plans to be the launch customer of Boeing's next-generation Dreamliner.

European consortium Airbus had been pushing hard to win the order since ANA launched the search in July, seeing it as a chance to break into the Japanese market, which is dominated almost entirely by US rival Boeing.

"Airbus is disappointed but recently had pretty much expected this considering the deterioration of the global economy," a person involved in the negotiations told AFP.

"In a crisis period like this, companies have to seal things up and wait for the turbulence to pass," he said.

"The important thing for the European group is for it to happen some day or another," he said of breaking Boeing's stranglehold on Japan.

ANA's president, Mineo Yamamoto, had said in an interview published last week that the company was considering slashing its planned capital investment by as much as one-fifth due to the harsh economic climate.

ANA had reportedly been considering the double-decker A380, which can seat more than 800 passengers, for long-haul routes from Tokyo to New York or London.

It had in October revised down its full-year net profit forecasts by one-third, saying the global economic crisis was slowing demand for air travel.

The airline has been upset by repeated delays in the delivery of Boeing's Dreamliner, a new fuel-efficient jet on which the aircraft manufacturer is staking its future.

Boeing earlier this month said it would push back the first deliveries of the Dreamliner to early 2010, roughly two years later than initially promised, because of production and labour problems.

ANA is set to be the first carrier to fly the Dreamliner and has ordered a record 50 of the jets. ANA's larger rival Japan Airlines has also ordered 35 Dreamliner planes.

The global economic crisis has hit airline profits in much of the world as fewer people travel for either business or leisure.

A US industry group forecast that the number of passengers travelling around the world on US carriers will slump by nine percent this holiday season.

Image: A Boeing 787 Dreamliner in All Nippon Airways' livery.