State-owned Qatar Airways has been forced to ground 13 Airbus A350 aircraft following instructions from the country’s aviation regulator, local reports have said.
The Qatar Civil Aviation Authority has reportedly asked Qatar Airways to take the step due to a faster-than-expected deterioration of the fuselage surface below the paint on the jets.
The aircraft will remain grounded till “the root cause can be established and a satisfactory solution made available to permanently correct the underlying condition,” said the local reports.
Qatar Airways and Airbus have been in a months-long public dispute over the matter.
Qatar Airways already said in June that it had pulled some of its A350 jets from service until the issue could be understood and fixed.
It did not say back then how many aircraft had been grounded.
However, it said on Thursday that it had brought A330 aircraft back into service to make up for lost capacity, and that it was also “looking at other solutions.”
The local reports said it has halted the induction of the carbon-composite widebody jet until the problem was resolved. In fact, it has stopped taking deliveries of the aircraft.
Qatar Airways is the largest customer for the Airbus A350, said the reports, adding that it has already taken delivery of 53 out of the 76 it had ordered.
“With this latest development, we sincerely expect that Airbus treats this matter with the proper attention that it requires,” Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker was quoted by the local reports as saying.
“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,” he added.
A spokesperson from Airbus reportedly said the company was always in talks with its customers, but such discussions were confidential.
The spokesperson did not elaborate, and did not comment on anything else, said the reports.