American Airlines said today that it will move up three scheduled deliveries of the single-aisle, medium range 737-800 from 2016 to 2009.

American says that it will bring forward the delivery of 47 of the planes to 2009-2012 from 2013-2016.

The topic of American’s delayed decision on a Maddog fleet replacement was a hot topic of conversation this year at the annual ISTAT Conference, as I reported in PlaneBusiness Banter, with no less than Steve Hazy, CEO of uber-airline leasing firm ILFC making the comment, “The day of reckoning will come.”

Then again, as was pointed out by others, the airline has not been in a position to even purchase more aircraft for the last several years.

American is the largest operator of MD-80s. It currently owns 138 and leases 187 more of the aircraft, nearly half of the airline’s fleet.

The 737-800 carries roughly the same number of passengers as the MD-80, but will use 25% less fuel per available seat mile, according to the statement issued today by American.

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Hey, we’re all airline geeks this week. Forget the lack of orders, forget the weight issues, forget the employee strikes against Airbus.

This week we are all just gawkers of the latest thing that can fly. The fact it is so huge is just icing on the cake. Or would that be two cakes? Two cakes and one french croissant?

Well, yesterday in PBB we wrote about the latest delay in the UPS A380 freighter order that was announced last week.

Today — that news is old news.

Today UPS canceled the order. Kaput.

Airbus now has NO orders for its A380F.

Both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg are reporting that we could hear, as early as tomorrow, that Lufthansa has agreed to purchase 20 747-8 Intercontinental aircraft from Boeing, with options for 20 more. These will be the passenger version of the aircraft, not the cargo version.

This is the new “stretch” version of the 747 aircraft. Interesting in that Boeing just recently modified the 8i product — adding some seats to its basic configuration. While this did reduce the maximum range of the aircraft — you have to wonder if this change wasn’t what helped to make the Lufthansa deal a “go.”

This is not, repeat, not good news for Airbus.

While other news outlets were highlighting the fact that the major players involved last week — France, DaimlerChrysler, and Lagardere cancelled a scheduled meeting to discuss the financing of the Airbus A350 aircraft — “squabbling” was how Reuters put it — Flight International focused today on the real issue here.

The real issue is that any type of launch aid is now subject to closer scrutiny, because the WTO dispute continues between the United States and the European Commission. The question at issue here? Government subsidies to aircraft manufacturers.

Speaking of, the U.S. has filed its first WTO submission, and the EC is expected to reply by Feb. 9. Meanwhile the EC has already asked the WTO to select panelists and set a timetable for its own case against the U.S. before the end of business today.

Given this backdrop, I think it is safe to say that the manner in which the new aircraft’s launch is funded is a bit more complicated then it would have been previously.

I wouldn’t, therefore, call the cancellation of the funding meeting last week a result of “squabbling” or “infighting” amongst the EADS partners. Rather, I’d call it making sure their respective backsides are covered no matter what plan is adopted — given the current political landscape.

From today’s WSJ:

Airbus revealed that its share of new aircraft orders by value has waned to about 36% this year from 45% last year, in a sign of just how much damage the European jet maker has suffered amid delays in its A380 superjumbo program. Boeing, of course, has been the major beneficiary of Airbus’s turbulence, and the U.S. aerospace giant is on course to pass Airbus in orders for the first time in six years. Airbus predicts global demand for 22,700 aircraft worth $2.6 trillion over the next two decades. “This is a growth industry, no matter how you slice it,” said Chief Operating Officer John Leahy at a news conference in London.

Is that the best comment John could come up with?

Reports today say that Emirates has canceled its order for 10 A340-600 aircraft from Airbus.

Emirates will, instead, go with Boeing 777s.

In addition, Emirates is apparently also talking to Boeing about a new passenger version of the 747 — a stretched 747-8, according to President Tim Clark.

Could Clark’s words be a not-so-subtle warning message to Airbus in regard to Emirate’s current order of 43 Airbus A380s? If I were a betting person, I’d say yes.

Meanwhile — it was also announced today that Qantas has agreed to buy eight more of the A380s and four more A330-200s.

Given the money Qantas is already going to receive from Airbus because of delays in the delivery of the A380 and confirmed delivery date assurances in this new order — I’d be willing to bet that the net cost to Qantas of its A380s is going to be, er, quite reasonable.

If the cost of attending personally was just simply not in your budget this year, AvWeek is blogging from this year’s Farnborough Festivities.

Thanks to the legendary Queen of Regional Aviation, Benet Wilson, for the heads up.

As expected, Airbus today released details of its revised A350 design.

What was not expected, at least for me, was that the manufacturer kept the A350 moniker. There was talk last week that Airbus would probably move to an “A370” tag in an attempt to distance the old from the new.

Technically the new aircraft is dubbed the X-WB.

Isn’t that a wanna be television network?

Whatever. No, actually it stands for Xtra Wide Body.

Airbus now estimates it is going to spend about $10 billion in development costs on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner competitor. Estimated arrival time for the new baby is now 2012.

Meanwhile, I was *shocked,* simply *shocked* to hear today that Boeing did confirm in Farnborough that it is experiencing production delays with the 787.

Reasons? The two usual suspects. Excess weight and problems with suppliers.

The percentage of outsourced components on the 787 is unprecedented. As a result, this news really does not come as a surprise, as industry observers have said for years that the high number of outsourced elements of the new jet would be problematic when crunch time rolled around.