Qatar Airways will reinstate its remaining order for 23 A350s and 50 A321neos in full which the airline had cancelled following the legal battle with Airbus over paint degradation. As per the sources, the A350 deliveries are expected to resume this year, while the A321neos will be delivered around 2026.
After the ‘amicable settlement’ the court case stands closed. With this both the parties inferred that they will be moving ahead as partners from now on. As a first step towards this, the airline will reinstate the previously cancelled orders for airplanes.
In January 2021, Qatar had filed a case against seeking over $600 million in damage from Airbus followed by cancelling the order of 50 A321neos. Post this Qatar placed an order with Boeing for 50, 737 MAX aircraft on January 31, 2022 along with 777X freighter order.
In response, Airbus removed the outstanding A350 orders by Qatar from its orderbooks.
Going ahead, Airbus and Qatar both have confirmed that these orders will be reinstated adding a backlog of 50 A321neos and 23 A350s to the Airbus order books.
Qatar Airways currents has 53 A350s in its fleet with 19, A350-1000 and 34 A350-900. Of these 22 are grounded by QCAA due to damage to the paintwork.