Qatar Airways has abandoned plans to bring its first Airbus A380 to the upcoming Farnborough Airshow.
A Qatar Airways spokesman stated that the aircraft would not be arriving in the UK for the airshow. The news follows an announcement in June that A380 deliveries had been delayed after one of the airline’s inspection teams found deficiencies in the aircraft cabin. It had previously been due for delivery in March and was due to commence A380 services to London Heathrow on June 17th.
CEO Akbar Al Baker said: “The delays are due to certain issues affecting the interior of the cabin which were identified during the airline’s standard aircraft delivery process, which includes rigorous inspections by its specialist technical team. As a result of the findings, the delivery schedule of the airline’s A380 aircraft has been impacted to allow Airbus to address Qatar Airways’ requests. It is completely normal for the inspection process of delivering a new aircraft to an airline to go through several rounds, and this is not an unusual case, though it will lead to an unfortunate delay of several weeks before Qatar Airways’ flagship aircraft will commence commercial service."
Recent press reports have speculated August 1st as the new date for commencing services to London.