#Qatar Airways seeks more than $600 mln in Airbus A350 dispute | Reuters

Qatar Airways seeks more than $600 mln in Airbus A350 dispute | Reuters

Qatar Airways is claiming $618 million in compensation from planemaker Airbus (AIR.PA) in a dispute over erosion to the surface of A350 jetliners, a court document showed on Thursday.

The Gulf airline is also seeking extra compensation of $4 million for every day that 21 of its A350 airplanes remain grounded by Qatar's regulator over the skin damage, which includes erosion and gaps in a layer of lightning protection.

The European jetliner's largest customer launched the claim in December, saying Airbus had failed to provide a full root-cause analysis needed to satisfy its questions over the airworthiness of some 40% of its A350 fleet.

Airbus said it understood the cause and would "deny in total" the airline's claim in a division of the High Court in London. "Airbus restates there is no airworthiness issue," a spokesperson said, adding this view had been confirmed by European regulators.