Friday 21 January 2022

Airbus (AIR) Accuses #Qatar Airways of Engineering A350 Grounding - Bloomberg

Airbus (AIR) Accuses Qatar Airways of Engineering A350 Grounding - Bloomberg


Airbus SE turned up the heat in a dispute with one of its biggest customers, accusing Qatar Airways of instigating a local grounding of A350 jetliners in order to claim compensation over alleged surface defects, and terminating a separate order for its hard-to-get A321neos.

“There is no reasonable or rational basis” for Qatari regulators to have grounded 21 of the A350s operated by the state-owned carrier, according to documents prepared by Airbus for a London court hearing on Thursday.

The planemaker will contend that Qatar Airways “sought to engineer or has acquiesced” in the groundings because it’s in the airline’s economic interest to idle planes “given the impact of the coronavirus pandemic” on demand.

The high-stakes battle is getting underway in London after Qatar Airways sued Airbus over defects with the surface paint of the twin-aisle jet. The planemaker said Thursday that it rescinded a separate contract to deliver smaller A321s, putting pressure on the Gulf airline as Qatar gears up to host the World Cup soccer event later this year.

No comments:

Post a Comment