Qatar Airways grounds 13 A350s
Qatar Airways has, on recommendation by the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority, decided to ground thirteen of its A350s. The move comes as the airline says the aircraft are suffering from accelerated surface degradation of its composite fuselage at the tail-section. The degradation is not visible as it's underneath the paint on the fuselage but came to light when A350-900 A7-ALL (036) was stripped of its paint when it was planned to be repainted in the FIFA World Cup 2022-livery at Shannon.
Since the discovery the issue has been part of ongoing escalating discussions between Airbus and Qatar Airways in which the manufacturer states that the cracks are superficial and don't have any impact on the safety of the aircraft. The airline, however, thinks different and has gone as far as refusing to take delivery of any new A350 since June until the issue has been resolved. So far the issue has only been raised, at least publically, by Qatar Airways and not by any other A350-operators.
Qatar Airways currently has a fleet of 53 A350s, consisting of nineteen A350-1000s and 34 A350-900s. Thirteen of these are parked and we assume these are the ones involved in the issue:
- A350-900 A7-ALA (006), parked at Doha and delivered December 2014
- A350-900 A7-ALB (007), parked at Doha and delivered March 2015
- A350-900 A7-ALC (009), parked at Doha and delivered May 2015
- A350-900 A7-ALD (010), parked at Doha and delivered June 2015
- A350-900 A7-ALE (008), parked at Doha and delivered October 2015
- A350-900 A7-ALF (011), parked at Doha and delivered October 2015
- A350-900 A7-ALG (013), parked at Doha and delivered November 2015
- A350-900 A7-ALL (036), parked at Toulouse-Blagnac and delivered November 2016
- A350-900 A7-ALT (090), parked at Doha and delivered November 2017
- A350-900 A7-ALV (106), parked at Doha and delivered May 2018
- A350-900 A7-ALW (114), parked at Doha and delivered June 2018
- A350-1000 A7-ANB (102), parked at Doha and delivered June 2018
- A350-1000 A7-ANC (110), parked at Doha and delivered July 2018
Airbus has, so far, not responded on the grounding of the A350s by Qatar and both companies continue to be in discussion. The manufacturer was hoping to secure an order for its new A350-freighter from the airline but this escalation will probably not help with this.
Photo by Airbus.