Qatar Airways took a spiraling $4 million-a-day dispute with Europe’s Airbus (AIR.PA) to social media on Friday, distributing a video of the scarred outside of grounded A350 jets that the airline said underscored “serious and legitimate safety concerns.” The different sides have been secured for quite a long time a spiraling dispute over deterioration to paint and anti-lightning protection on the passenger jets, which Airbus has said is going on rashly yet doesn’t represent any safety issue.
The dispute has led to the grounding of 21 planes out of 53 A350s operated by Qatar Airways and cast a pall over the airline’s preparations for the World Cup later this year.
Qatar Airways hit back with the first official images of jets grounded by its regulator after Airbus accused the state airline of engineering the dispute to obtain compensation.
Qatar Airways is pressing in a London court for compensation of more than $600 million, while Airbus raised the stakes on Thursday by revoking a separate order for 50 A321neos, portraying the rift as a contractual rather than safety spat.
Airbus has said there is “no reasonable or rational basis” for the groundings, which have not been matched by operators of A350s in other countries.
In the video lasting just over a minute and a half, Qatar Airways showed degradation on two A350s grounded by the country’s regulator.
The clip showed peeling or missing paint and damage to underlying anti-lightning protection, as well as what the airline described as patches of the underlying structural carbon-fiber exposed to moisture and ultra-violet light.
“We continue to strongly believe that Airbus must undertake a thorough investigation of this condition to conclusively establish its full root cause,” Qatar Airways said.
Airbus says it has provided the relevant information and concluded that there is no airworthiness risk, a view echoed by Europe’s aviation regulator. Airbus had no immediate comment on the video.
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