Airbus is turning up the heat as its dispute with Qatar Airways over grounded A350 jet continues to escalate.
Reuters reports that Airbus has asked the UK High Court for $220 million in damages from Qatar Airways after the airline rejected two Airbus A350 aircraft.
The news comes after the Gulf carrier confirmed the grounding of another Airbus A350 jet over accelerated surface degradation. Qatar Airways, which has 53 A350s in its fleet, claims it had to remove a total of 22 aircraft from the flight roster.
In a further development, Qatar Airways regrets to advise that its regulator, the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA) has now revoked the Airworthiness Review Certificate in respect of an additional A350 aircraft resulting in a total of 22 Airbus A350 aircraft now grounded.
— Qatar Airways (@qatarairways) February 28, 2022
In late 2021, Qatar Airways sued Airbus over the deterioration of the A350 fuselage surface, seeking more than $600 million in compensation.
In response to Qatar Airways’ claims, Airbus terminated the carrier’s order of 50 Airbus A321neo aircraft in January 2022. However, the UK court ordered Airbus to freeze the cancellation on February 18, 2022.
“Qatar Airways welcomes the decision of the High Court on Friday 18 February 2022 which issued an injunction against Airbus. The essence of the order is that Airbus must not do anything between the date of the order and a further hearing in April that would adversely affect its ability to comply with any court order that Qatar Airways might obtain in relation to the purported cancellation of the A321 contract,” according to Qatar Airways’ statement released on February 28, 2022.
Despite the dispute, Qatar Airways still wants to reinstate the order of 50 Airbus A321neo jets revoked by Airbus in January 2022.