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Airbus and Qatar Airways Settle A350 Paint Issue
Steven Meyer • Feb 08, 2023
Airbus and Qatar Airways Settle A350 Paint Issue
On February 1, 2023, Airbus announced that Airbus and Qatar Airways had finally reached an agreement on the A350's paint issues. The exact terms of the agreement will remain confidential.
The A350's paint issues started at the end of 2020 when Qatar Airways detected cracks in the paint of some of its newly acquired A350s. After noticing these cracks, Qatar Airways grounded part of its fleet. Airbus rejected the allegations that safety could have ever been compromised due to the paint cracks.
Qatar Airways had 53 Airbus A350s and 19 more outstanding at the time. During preliminary court hearings in London, it was identified that Airbus had implemented some design changes affecting parts of its production process after these paint issues. Due to these allegations, Airbus canceled all of Qatar Airways' outstanding aircraft orders.
Currently, following the announcement, Reuters stated that based on the working of the statement, one could understand that Airbus and Qatar Airways might work together in the future.
Airbus is currently working with Qatar Airways to get the affected aircraft back in the air.
Source:
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/costly-airbus-paint-flaw-goes-wider-than-gulf-2021-11-29/
https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/airbus-scraps-a350-contract-with-qatar-airways-in-feud
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