Qatar Airways says its national regulator has ordered it to stop flying 21 out of its 53 A350 jets as the problems appeared, prompting a bitter dispute with Airbus which has said that while it acknowledges technical problems, there is no safety issue.
Now, the financial and technical details associated with the rare legal spat have emerged in a court filing at a High Court division in London, where Qatar Airways sued Airbus in December.
The Gulf airline is calling for $618 million in compensation from Airbus over the partial grounding, plus $4 million for every day that the 21 jets remain out of service.
The claim includes $76 million for one aircraft alone – a five-year-old A350 that was due to be re-painted in livery for the 2022 World Cup, which Qatar is hosting later this year.
That aircraft has been parked in France for a year needing 980 repair patches after the aborted paint job exposed gaps in the lightning shield, industry sources say.
The largest customer for Europe’s premier long-haul jet claims Airbus failed to provide a full root-cause analysis needed to satisfy unresolved questions over the airworthiness of the affected jets including the lightning protection system.
The jets feature a layer of copper mesh under the paint to prevent lightning – which strikes planes on average once a year – damaging the carbon-composite fuselage, which is lighter but less conductive than traditional metal.
BREAKDOWN OF RELATIONS
Airbus said it understood the cause and would “deny in total” the airline’s complaint. It has accused the airline, once one of its most highly courted customers, of trying to mischaracterize the problems as a safety concern.
“Airbus restates there is no airworthiness issue,” a spokesperson said, adding this had been confirmed by European regulators.
Qatar Airways, which has ordered a total of 80 A350s, had no immediate comment.
The airline has long had a reputation as a demanding buyer, sporadically rejecting deliveries for quality reasons.
But the…