Qatar Airways begins action against Airbus in London’s High Court

Qatar Airways said it had begun legal action against Airbus in London’s High Court in an effort to resolve an impasse over the quality of surface issues on its A350 widebody aircraft.

“We have sadly failed in all our attempts to reach a constructive solution with Airbus in relation to the accelerated surface degradation condition adversely impacting the Airbus A350 aircraft,” the Gulf carrier said in a statement.

“Qatar Airways has therefore been left with no alternative but to seek a rapid resolution of this dispute via the courts,” it added.

The decision to launch the legal action in the technology and construction division of the High Court is the latest salvo in a long-running dispute between the carrier and the European plane maker that dates back to the end of last year.

Qatar had sent an A350 jet to Ireland to be painted in a livery for the forthcoming football World Cup in the Gulf state. Some abnormalities were found under the original paint when it was stripped off ahead of the application of the new colour scheme.

The airline operates 34 A350-900s and 19 A350-1000s. It has grounded 21 of its jets on the orders of its aviation regulator. It also has another 23 on order but has halted further deliveries during the dispute.

Airbus has consistently maintained that the surface-degradation issues are non-structural, an assessment that has been backed by the EU Aviation Safety Agency.

The European company last week said it would seek an independent legal assessment of the airline’s claims. It said at the time that the attempt by an unnamed customer to “misrepresent this specific topic as an airworthiness issue represents a threat to the international protocols on safety matters”.

Qatar said on Monday that it wanted Airbus to “undertake a thorough investigation of this condition to conclusively establish its full root cause”. Without this, it was “not possible for Qatar Airways to establish whether any proposed repair solution will rectify the underlying condition”, it added.

Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways’ chief executive, has waged an increasingly bitter campaign in public against Airbus over the surface problems.

Last month, he alleged that the plane maker had been unable to fix the problem because it did not know what had gone wrong, and claimed Airbus had made “false statements” in trying to pin the blame on Qatar.

Airbus said in response that it had “nothing to add at this point”. 

The plane maker has previously said that it had identified the root cause of the issue and that it was working with customers to provide solutions. Other A350 customers are also understood to have identified similar, although less severe, issues. No other airline has grounded their planes.