Boeing Co plans to cut up to 8,000 jobs this year at its commercial airplane division, Reuters reports, citing two people familiar with the matter.

The move could slash $1 billion in costs and help it battle for sales against European rival Airbus, Reuters says.

Boeing on Wednesday acknowledged plans to cut about 4,000 jobs in its commercial airplanes division by mid-year, and another 550 jobs in a unit that conducts flight and lab testing.

Sources said the company's broad goal is to cut jobs by 10 percent at its commercial airplane unit, which has about 80,000 employees.

Boeing said the 8,000 figure is hypothetical and that it does not have a specific goal for job cuts.

"There is no employment reduction target," spokesman Doug Alder said, according to Reuters. "The more we can control costs as a whole, the less impact there will be to employment."

Boeing said the job reductions are part of a broad cost-cutting drive to keep the Chicago-based aerospace and defense company competitive. But Boeing's stock posted the biggest decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wednesday, falling 1.88 percent to $128.58.

Boeing is enjoying the biggest peacetime boom in its 100-year history, increasing jetliner output to historic levels. But it is using fewer workers than in the past, and cutting other costs to compete with Airbus.

The savings are necessary to "win in the market, fund our growth and operate as a healthy business," Ray Conner, chief executive of the airplane business, told employees last month.

Boeing booked 70 new plane orders through February compared with 18 for Airbus, but the tally included 40 discounted 737s to United Airlines.

On Wednesday investors said they saw the large job cuts as a harried response to a slowing business cycle and tough competition from Airbus, rather than a part of an orderly plan to adjust labor to match output.

"It sounds reactive, not proactive," said a fund manager with a large stake in Boeing.