Airbus Says Terminating Qatar A321 Contract Won’t Free Capacity - Bloomberg
The cancellation of an A321 order for Qatar Airways won’t release new industrial capacity for Airbus SE’s oversubscribed model, the manufacturer said in legal documents.
Airbus canceled the airline’s contract as part of an acrimonious legal dispute and Qatar Airways is seeking an injunction to reverse the cancellation. A U.K. court already ordered Airbus not to allocate those delivery slots before a hearing on the injunction next month.
Aircraft planning operates in the same way as an airline selling tickets for its flights, with more customers booked in than will eventually appear, Airbus lawyer Karl Hennessee said in a witness statement. This means that removing the airline from the planning doesn’t free up more capacity.
The A321 is popular with airlines due to its increased range and capacity and the order cancellation marked an escalation of the dispute between Airbus and a major customer. A judge will rule in a hearing next month whether the cancellation is allowed to stand.
Airbus has already provisionally added Qatar back into its plans, meaning that if the judge rules in the airline’s favor the A321 order could be accommodated “subject to delays following the termination of the contract,” Airbus said. It now estimates it could deliver the first aircraft around the fourth quarter of 2023, compared with an original delivery date of February 2023.
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