Legal battle between Airbus and Qatar Airways drags on, split into two parts
A $2 billion legal battle between Airbus and Qatar Airways looks set to drag through most of 2023 after a UK court split the case, amid a glimmer of hope that high-level contacts on the sidelines of the World Cup might yield a breakthrough.
The dispute over damage to the surface and lightning protection on A350 jetliners grounded by Qatar has led to months of legal manoeuvering between two of aviation’s largest players and the unprecedented cancellation of large-scale orders.
→ Prosecution refrains from seeking a conviction against Airbus and Air France for AF447 crash
Judge David Waksman ordered a trial set for next June to be split in two parts because of the sheer weight of disagreements, Reuters reported.
The first part will focus on liability with the combined claims, estimated at around $2 billion, tackled later.
Qatar Airways says widespread paint cracking has exposed deeper damage on some A350 jets, prompting it to stop taking deliveries. Qatar’s regulator has grounded at least 29 of the jets, citing unanswered safety questions, over the past year.
Airbus has acknowledged quality problems with its premier long-haul model but denies any risk to safety and has cancelled all outstanding new business with Qatar Airways.
On Friday, the two sides clashed angrily over access to the affected planes with Airbus lawyer David Wolfson complaining with the aid of photographs that its experts had been forced to photograph jets from a distance “under the light of the moon”.
→ Airbus made a flight of more than 13 hours with the A321XLR
He also accused the airline of engaging in a game of “switcheroo” to prevent its experts inspecting in-service jets.
Qatar Airways strongly denied failing to cooperate with inspections and said it had given whatever access was practical to jets on short notice as it hosts the World Cup soccer tournament.
“We do have to bear in mind that this is an operating airline,” the carrier’s lawyer Geraint Webb said.
The exchange – cut short by an apparently exasperated Waksman – is just one example of the breakdown in co-operation between Airbus and Qatar Airways, once a star customer and the first and largest buyer of Europe’s premier long-haul jet.
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