This is a new twist in the litigation that has been opposing Airbus and one of its biggest customers, Qatar Airways, for several months. Attacked in court for paint defects on its A350s, the European manufacturer has decided this time not to let it go and has just canceled the Doha company’s order for 50 A321neo, a medium-bodied carrier with long-haul performance .
This decision is not insignificant, it is almost unprecedented, the amount of the contract was around 5 billion dollars. Generally, order cancellations are caused by customer companies, due to lack of funding or reorganization of their network.
At the origin of this discord, the rapid degradation of paint on the company’s A350s. A defect recognized by Airbus, but without consequence on flight safety, but which however prompted the supervisory authority of Qatar Airways to ground nearly half of the company’s A350 fleet.
In this case, Qatar is claiming nearly 620 million dollars in damages and 4 million per additional day of immobilization of its A350s. A claim rejected by Airbus, which accuses Qatar Airways, a public company, of having influenced its supervisory authority to obtain the immobilization of the aircraft concerned, for the sole purpose of obtaining compensation.
Especially since Qatar is the only company to have grounded its A350s and since EASA, the European Aviation Safety Agency, which has authority in aircraft certification, has declared that at this stage it has not identified any safety issue on the A350s it has inspected.
The Doha company should challenge the cancellation of this order. It says it was waiting for delivery of these A321s, but at the same time refuses to take delivery of new A350s until the dispute with Airbus is resolved. The European manufacturer hit hard. A first hearing before the British courts is scheduled for the end of April.