Qatar Airways and Airbus are friends again
On 1 February 2023, Airbus and Qatar Airways announced that they have reached an "amicable and mutually agreeable settlement in relation to their legal dispute over A350 surface degradation and the grounding of A350 aircraft". Both companies stress that the settlement is not an admission of liability for either party and that they will work together in getting the grounded A350s of the airline back in the air.
Although the details of the settlement are confidential, both companies have also said that the airline's previous orders for 50 Airbus A321neos and nineteen A350-1000s will be reinstated. Both orders were scrapped by Airbus in August last year as a result of the dispute between the two companies. Qatar Airways expects to take delivery of its first A321neo in 2026, which is three years later than originally planned.
The feud between Qatar Airways and started in August 2021 when the airline announced it would ground, initially, thirteen of its A350s due to an accelerated surface degradation at the tail section. The grounding was recommended by the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority, which deemed the aircraft unsafe to be operated. Airbus, backed by other operators and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), said the degradation was purely cosmetic and didn't impact the safe operation of the aircraft. Although other airlines also had crackling paint on the lightning protection, they never stopped flying the aircraft.
Qatar Airways in its turn wasn't convinced and demanded a permanent solution to the issue and refused to take delivery of any new Airbus until things were resolved. Airbus then took the unprecedented step to sue the airline at the High Court in the United Kingdom as it deemed the grounding unnecessary and a risk to the manufacturer's reputation. Reading between the lines, Airbus thought the grounding was more due to the pandemic and that Qatar misused the paint issue to get compensation which would dampen the loss of income.
Two weeks ago, on 20 January 2023, Airbus confirmed as part of the ongoing trial in London that it had changed the design of the lightning protection on the tail section. According to the manufacturer, the new design was implemented due to it being lighter but also had the benefit that the paint attached better to the surface.
As a result, Qatar Airways demanded that Airbus would give full openess in the court about why it has implemented the design change, while Airbus in its turn demanded that the airline and the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority present their full evidence on which the grounding has been based.
Now, two weeks later, and also most likely after an intervention by the Qatar Emir and French President, both companies have reached a settlement.
As of today, the airline has a fleet of 34 A350-900s, and nineteen A350-1000s. Of these, currently 24 -900s, and seven -1000s are grounded and parked at Doha's two airports.
Photo by Anton Homma.