A380 Divulgação/Airbus
Commercial
Aviation
/ Middle East
Qatar Airways
The airline suspends Airbus deliveries after discovering “accelerated degradation” of the fuselage of its A350 fleet
By: Gabriela Ramos
On: 8/8/2021
A380
Divulgação/Airbus
In a note published yesterday, Aug. 5, Qatar Airways claimed to have found unspecified damage to one of its Airbus A350 aircraft during a regular overhaul. The company claims that the fuselage, underneath the paint, is degrading at an accelerated rate.
As a result, the company took 13 of the model's aircraft out of operation and suspended deliveries of new aircraft until the cause of the problem is established and a solution is found. Qatar Airways has 53 A350 aircraft in its fleet, with the -900 and -1000 versions.
Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar, said: “With this latest case, we sincerely hope that Airbus will address this issue with the due attention it requires. Qatar Airways will accept nothing but aircraft that continue to provide its customers with the highest possible standard of safety and the best travel experience they deserve. Qatar Airways expects Airbus to have established the root cause and permanently corrected the underlying condition to meet our standards and our regulator's requirements, before we take delivery of any other A350 aircraft.”
In addition, the company said it is cooperating with the world's leading A350 lessors, who have already started carrying out inspections on their aircraft. Qatar said it is also now working to put its A330 fleet back into operation, seeking to offset some of the impact caused by this episode.
In the statement, the airline stated that “the safety of passengers remains Qatar Airways' main concern. The airline will do everything possible to ensure that its passengers are not inconvenienced by the mandatory removal of these aircraft from service and will endeavor to find alternative solutions to offer the usual high standard of service to all. Qatar Airways has already taken steps to return its A330 fleet to service with immediate effect to offset part of the impact of the A350 fleet on the ground and is currently looking for other solutions as well.”
Gabriela Ramos
Gabriela is the latest addition to the editorial team of our website, having provided us with her solid background in editing, publishing and photography, and her interest and training in aviation history and historiography. His good taste and common sense and great cleverness and sagacity in the selection of themes and materials greatly enriched our vocabulary and narrative style. Gabriela brought unusual predicates and came to stay, helping to point the way of success of our portal.
   
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