Qatar Airways grounds 13 Airbus jets due to ‘degrading’ fuselages
Qatar Airways has today grounded 13 of its Airbus A350 planes due to the faster than expected deterioration of their fuselages.
The airline was instructed to cease flying the affected planes by its regulator after the issue was discovered.
It marks yet another escalation in an ongoing row between Qatar and Airbus over the problem.
In a statement, chief executive Akbar Al Baker said: “With this latest development, we sincerely expect that Airbus treats this matter with the proper attention that it requires.
“Qatar Airways expects Airbus to have established the root cause and permanently corrected the underlying condition to the satisfaction of Qatar Airways and our regulator before we take delivery of any further A350 aircraft.”
The Gulf airline has one of the world’s biggest fleets of the A350, with 53 jets currently in service.
Earlier this year it refused to take delivery of 23 more of the planes, saying it would not do so until the problem had been fixed.
“As a leading aircraft manufacturer we are always in talks/working with our customers,” Airbus said. “Those talks we keep confidential. We have no further comment on our customer’s operations.”
The Airbus A350, a widebody jet, can carry between 300 and 350 passengers, and has a range of 8,100 nautical miles.