Airbus seeks legal advice in A350 row with Qatar Airways

Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) has said it will seek independent legal assessment to resolve the dispute over the non-structural paint degradation on Qatar Airways’ A350 widebodies. The manufacturer said the airline was “misrepresenting” the nature of the issue to the detriment of international aircraft safety protocols.

“The surface paint-related findings have been thoroughly assessed by Airbus and confirmed by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) as having no airworthiness impact on the A350 fleet. The attempt by this customer to misrepresent this specific topic as an airworthiness issue represents a threat to the international protocols on safety matters,” the manufacturer said.

Without naming Qatar Airways as the airline involved in the dispute, Airbus added that direct and open discussions between the two firms had yielded no results. It said that it “regretted” resorting to legal means but underlined the need to defend its reputation. It stressed that it would seek to restore “constructive dialogue” with Qatar Airways.

“Airbus has worked actively with its customers in order to minimise the impact and any inconvenience caused by this in-service surface degradation on the aircraft. These solutions have all been dismissed by the above-mentioned customer without legitimate justification,” Airbus added.

The airline grounded twenty of its fifty-three A350s on the orders of the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA) after paint degradation was discovered during the repainting of one aircraft. The peeling paint exposes anti-lightning copper mesh on the fuselage. However, the EASA found the issue to be non-structural. While other airlines have reported similar degradation, albeit on a smaller scale, no other carrier or regulator has grounded any A350s.

The row led Qatar Airways to suspend the deliveries of its twenty-three outstanding A350-1000s. The airline has also said it would prefer to order B777X freighters rather than A350Fs for its future cargo needs. To cover for the absence of the A350s, Qatar Airways has subleased two B777-300(ER)s from Cathay Pacific.