Qatar Airways issued a statement yesterday noted that it had grounded its A350 fleet over issues relating to the accelerated degradation of paint on the aircraft’s fuselage. Qatar Airways has a fleet of 53 Airbus A350 aircraft.
Qatar Airways said that it was continuing to closely monitor the “significant condition across its Airbus A350 fleet in which the fuselage surface below the paint is degrading at an accelerated rate”. The airline added that following the explicit written instruction of its regulator, “thirteen aircraft have now been grounded, effectively removing them from service until such time as the root cause can be established and a satisfactory solution made available to permanently correct the underlying condition”.
Qatar Airways has returned its A330 fleet into service with immediate effect to offset some of the impact of the grounded A350 aircraft and said it was also examining other solutions, while also cooperating with all the leasing companies affected by this A350 grounding which, Qatar states, have started to inspect their impacted aircraft.
“With this latest development, we sincerely expect that Airbus treats this matter with the proper attention that it requires,” said Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker. “Qatar Airways will not accept anything other than aircraft that continue to offer its customers the highest possible standard of safety and the best travel experience that they deserve. 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.”
Airbus has not commented publicly on the Qatar A250 grounding action. The move by Qatar Airways has been greeted with some derision in the industry as an attempt to force the renegotiation of future deliveries in light of the low air travel demand due to the pandemic restrictions.