With a dispute far from over, the Airbus decided to take a stand on the discontent on the part of the Qatar Airways about the paint problem related to lightning protection.
The problem consists of a non-structural degradation of a layer on the surface of the fuselage of the A350, forcing the Persian Gulf company to withdraw 20 aircraft from operation until Airbus solves the “safety” problem in the stopped A350s.
With that, Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways, did not hide his dissatisfaction with public statements, even spilling over the crisis at Boeing after announcing interest in new freighter jets from the North American instead of the A350 cargoes from Airbus.
In response, the manufacturer surprised and announced that it will seek an independent legal assessment to resolve the dispute with Qatar Airways.
“Safety is Airbus' top priority. The findings related to surface painting have been thoroughly evaluated by Airbus and confirmed by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) as having no impact on the airworthiness of the A350 Fleet,” announced Airbus in a statement.
In addition, the European manufacturer said that it regrets the need to follow such a path, but necessary to defend its position and reputation and that all solutions given to Qatar Airways were rejected by the customer without legitimate justification, but that seeks constructive dialogue. to resolve the matter.
Interestingly, in addition to Qatar Airways, five other companies also reported the same painting problem, but without any aircraft being taken out of service.
Finally, Airbus also claimed that Qatar Airways is trying to misrepresent the situation as an airworthiness issue.
