European planemaker Airbus has canceled its contract to supply 19 A350 planes to Qatar Airways, a source close to the matter said on Wednesday amid a feud between the two aviation giants.
Airbus earlier this year canceled a billion-dollar order for 50 aircraft from a major customer, Qatar Airways, over the airline’s grounding of A350 aircraft.
Qatar Airways is embroiled in a dispute with Airbus over deterioration of the outer fuselage surfaces of some of their widebody A350 aircraft.
The problem has prompted the airline, one of the Gulf region’s “big three” airlines, to ground 23 planes and stop accepting deliveries from the European firm until the problem is resolved.
Qatar Airways sought $200,000 in damages from Airbus per day per aircraft downtime.
The order for the 19 aircraft was valued at €7 billion at list prices, although airlines typically pay less for large purchases.
Neither Airbus nor Qatar Airways immediately commented on the canceled order.
– court dispute –
The airline and the leading aircraft manufacturer have been arguing over the paint issue in UK courts for months.
Qatar Airways launched legal action against Airbus in the High Court in London in December, with Airbus vigorously defending the A350 against any suggestion that the plane was unsafe.
Qatar’s civil aviation authority grounded the planes from flying because exposing the metal mesh underneath the paint posed a safety hazard.
However, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) found that this had no impact on the airworthiness of the aircraft.
In May, both sides said they hoped for a negotiated solution.
Qatar Airways is seeking around $1 billion in damages over the peeling paint job said to endanger the A350’s lightning rod.
After the airline retired part of its A350 fleet last year, Airbus responded by canceling an order from Qatar Airways for 50 A321s worth more than $6 billion.
Airbus said a clause in the contract for the 50 A321 aircraft allowed for their cancellation if Qatar Airways failed to fully honor one of its other contracts, which the airline did by refusing to accept delivery of A350 aircraft.
In January, an Airbus spokesman told AFP that the aircraft manufacturer had “terminated” the contract for 50 single-aisle A321neo aircraft “in accordance with our rights”.
Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker in June accused Airbus of acting like a “bully” in the dispute.
“A manufacturer must never use its market dominance to bully its long-standing customer,” he said at the International Air Transport Association’s annual general meeting in Doha.
For his part, Airbus boss Guillaume Faury had said he was seeking a conversation to try and resolve the issue, but acknowledged it was difficult.
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