Qatar Airways has grounded 13 Airbus A350s and suspended future deliveries of the aircraft after finding a surface issue on the plane’s fuselage.
The issue first came to light in June as one of the A350s was stripped for repainting, they found a flaw in the surface below the paint which was degrading at an accelerating rate.
“We have an issue with Airbus we need to settle, and if we are not able to settle that serious issue we have with them, we will refuse to take any aircraft from them.” - Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways CEO
Due to the issue, 13 A350s have been removed from services until the root cause can be found.
Qatar Airways returned some of the Airbus A330 fleet into service as a temporary replacement for the grounded A350s.
“Qatar Airways expects Airbus to have established the root cause and permanently corrected the underlying condition to the satisfaction of Qatar Airways and our regulator before we take delivery of any further A350 aircraft.” - Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways CEO
Qatar Airways is the largest A350 customer in the world with 34 A350s and an additional 23 to be delivered.
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