Dubai debt crisis may endanger aircraft orders?

In recent years Dubai had been throwing money around left and right.  From seven-star luxurious hotels to man-made islands shaped like palm trees to an indoor ski-resort, it looked as if Dubai had an unlimited source of wealth.  But it was inevitable that the global economic crisis would affect Dubai's lavish spending.  Essentially the country has an excess of real estate that no one wants (or at least, can't afford at the moment).  As a result, Dubai's investment arm, Dubai World, is now $59 billion in debt.  All this spells trouble for government-controlled carrier Emirates, which also got infected by the spending bug.  It has about $30 billion in aircraft orders for Airbus planes (including 53 A380's) and about $4 billion on Boeing 777's.  In addition, the aircraft leasing firm DAE Capital has $12.6 billion and $16 billion of outstanding orders for Airbus and Boeing planes, respectively.  So the big question is: will Emirates and DAE Capital still be able to purchase all these aircraft it has on order?  Will it have to defer payments and/or deliveries, or worse, outright cancel some orders?

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