EADS chief executive Louis Gallois has given up an annual bonus of more than $1.4 million for a second year running, the Airbus parent said, leaving him significantly worse off than his top American rival.

The Frenchman is paid a fixed salary of $1.1 million for running the world’s second largest aerospace company after Boeing and was slated to receive an additional variable pay award of $1.49 million for 2009.

EADS said Gallois had told the board of his decision to waive the bonus on March 8, when the company was about to announce a $1 billion net 2009 loss caused by huge cost overruns on the Airbus A400M military plane.

EADS did not give a reason for the decision but Gallois had already waived a larger bonus of $2 million the previous year after EADS posted a 2008 profit of $2 billion.

Gallois had asked the company to give the 2008 bonus to charity as a signal to staff at a time when the company was tightening its belt due to the recession. His basic salary was unchanged from 2008. His earnings are dwarfed by those of his counterpart at Boeing, James McNerney, who earned $19.4 million including salary, bonuses, stock options and pension changes in 2009, according to a March proxy filing.

McNerney’s bonus based on annual financial targets rose 58.5 per cent to $2.3 million. Meanwhile, Gallois told German daily Bild that Airbus must wait until late 2011 or 2012 before getting significant orders for its giant A380 airliner.

“Airlines must get through the crisis first. For that reason, I do not expect many orders in 2010,” he said. He added that he was “absolutely convinced” the A380 would eventually be successful.

In January, before the Icelandic volcano eruption grounded European air traffic for more than five days, Airbus had said it aimed to double the number of A380 deliveries this year to 20.

But the airline federation IATA has estimated since that the exceptional event will cost airlines more than $1.3 billion.