Qatar Airways’ relationship with Airbus over A350 exterior paint issues continues to veer toward a point that, while it would be risky to call it “no return,” will certainly leave scars for some time to come.
In an interview given to Danny Lee of Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper and published on Tuesday 13, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said they expect to ground more of the model’s aircraft while blaming Airbus for having “destroyed” its business relationship with the airline.
“We can always let the water run under the bridge and move on. Yet with Airbus, the damage is very severe. I don’t know how we can ever work with them again,” Al Baker said emphatically.
This new move by the executive comes after Airbus announced last week that it is seeking outside legal advice to outline a strategy to resolve the ongoing dispute with Qatar Airways as “peaceful resolution attempts” have failed, claiming that the problems were thoroughly assessed both internally and by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which concluded that the problems do not affect the A350’s airworthiness.
Qatar Airways, however, remains steadfast in pointing out that paint failure 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 to fix them.
The airline has grounded about 20 of its 53 A350s (34 of the -900 variant and 19 of the -1000), while it suspended deliveries of new aircraft. The total order comes to 76. About this, Al Baker told the South China Morning Post that he hopes “this condition will not further deteriorate on the other aircraft that are already flying, some of which are now showing signs of development.”
In order to make up for the lack of its A350s as global demand recovers, Qatar Airways would temporarily lease other aircraft. At least four Boeing 777s would come from Cathay Pacific, an airline-owned 9.99% by Qatar.
During the Dubai Airshow held between November 13 and 18, Al Baker had commented the purchase of the A350 freighter version would be dropped in favor of the 777XF (once it is launched) as a result of the detected problems.
Following that thread, the executive told the South China Morning Post that he “looked at the freighters very favorably. However, they have destroyed that relationship. I don’t think they will ever get a one-time order of the size we would have placed. How do they expect me to do business again with a company that doesn’t care about the customer at all? All they care about is their financial statements and their income statement.”
Between the two variants, there are more than 400 A350s in operation at around 30 airlines worldwide. Only five have reported finding similar “cosmetic damage,”s but none have moved ahead with grounding their aircraft.
