A350: Qatar Airways files lawsuit against Airbus

Days after the tough statements made by Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways, the airline went further and today in a British court in London filed a legal action against Airbus alleging the lack of a satisfactory response to the problems detected in the exterior paintwork of its A350s.

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«Unfortunately all our attempts to find a constructive solution with Airbus in relation to the accelerated degradation of the surface of our A350s have failed,» the company said in a press release.

«Qatar Airways has consequently been left with no alternative but to pursue this dispute through the courts,» they added.

The Doha-based airline has 23 of its 52 A350s grounded as a result of these inconveniences, and they hope that the judicial route will force Airbus to «address its legitimate concerns without any further delay.»

«We strongly believe that Airbus should pursue an investigation into this condition to determine conclusively its root cause. Without a proper understanding of it it is not possible for Qatar Airways to establish whether any remediation proposal would rectify the underlying condition,» the airline concluded.

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In an interview given to Danny Lee of Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper and published last Tuesday, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker had said they expect to ground more of the model’s aircraft while charging that Airbus had «destroyed» its business relationship with the airline.

«We can always let the water run under the bridge and move on. With Airbus, the damage is very severe. I don’t know how we will be able to work with them again,» Al Bajer had said flatly.

This came after Airbus announced that it is seeking external legal advice to devise a strategy to resolve the dispute with Qatar Airways as «peaceful settlement attempts» have failed, arguing that the problems were thoroughly assessed both internally and by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), concluding that the problems do not affect the A350’s airworthiness.

Qatar Airways, however, remains steadfast that the paint degradation puts the underlying structure at risk as it can be affected by mechanical or environmental factors, and Al Baker called on Airbus to «come out and admit» that there were manufacturing issues behind the problems and fix them.

To make up for the lack of its A350s as global demand recovers, Qatar Airways would resort to temporarily leasing other aircraft. Four Boeing 777s at least would come from Cathay Pacific, an airline in which Qatar owns 9.99% of the shares.

Between the two variants, there are more than 400 A350s in operation at some 30 airlines around the world. Only five have reported finding similar «cosmetic damage»00, but none have moved to ground their aircraft.