A legal row between Airbus and Qatar Airways has intensified with the European manufacturer reportedly seeking $220 million in damages from the airline.
The claim by Airbus in London’s High Court came as it defended itself against allegations from the Gulf carrier over damage to the surface of its A350 widebody aircraft.
Qatar Airways started legal action against Airbus in December, seeking $600 million from the company over “accelerated surface degradation” of the A350.
The airline, which operates 34 A350-900s and 19 A350-1000s, has grounded 21 of the aircraft on the orders of its aviation regulator.
One more A350 has been grounded, bringing the total to 22, the airline announced on Monday. It also has another 23 on order, but has halted further deliveries during the dispute.
The Airbus $220 million claim for damages is over two completed A350s that are ready to be delivered, the Financial Times reported.
The company would normally be able to resell the aircraft, but it has agreed not to do so pending a judgment from court on an injunction filed by Qatar Airways to prevent the contracts being cancelled.
Airbus also wants to recover millions of dollars of credits it had awarded Qatar Airways.
The European plane maker on Monday reiterated that the aircraft were safe, pointing out that no other operator had grounded their planes and that the EU Aviation Safety Agency had deemed the surface degradation issues to be non-structural, according to the FT.
Airbus said it had carried out a “full root cause analysis” of the issues, including a “fleet-wide investigation in relation to surface degradation on A350s generally”.
The objective of this investigation was to “identify potential enhancements which might address or mitigate this issue”.
It claimed that Qatar Airways had rejected proposed repairs, and accused the airline of mislabelling the issues as safety issues in order to claim compensation.
It added that it reserved the right to argue that Qatar Airways and its regulator had “wrongfully colluded or conspired and/or otherwise acted together in bad faith in relation” to the groundings, according to the court filing.
Qatar Airways said earlier that “neither Qatar Airways nor its legal team are aware of any efforts by Airbus to try to resolve the situation in an amicable way; in fact, the actual situation is to the contrary”.
The airline has sought to enforce a separate contract with Airbus for 50 A321 aircraft that was cancelled by the plane maker last month and said a High Court injunction against Airbus had been issued on February 18. A further hearing is due in April.
Airbus on Monday insisted that the counterclaim was a “last resort and followed many fruitless attempts to find mutually beneficial solutions”, adding that it remained “committed to finding an amicable resolution,” the FT reported.
Qatar Airways said it “regrets to advise that its regulator, the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority, has now revoked the airworthiness review certificate in respect of an additional A350 aircraft resulting in a total of 22 Airbus A350 aircraft now grounded.
“This decision has been taken by our regulator as all of these aircraft have developed damage as a result of the A350 accelerated surface degradation condition which is beyond the tolerance limits set by Airbus.
“The QCAA will not allow these aircraft to return to service until a full and conclusive root cause analysis has been completed, the impact on continuing airworthiness has been established and a solution been found to permanently correct the root cause and repair the damage.
“The safety of passengers and crew remains the highest priority for Qatar Airways and therefore the airline fully supports the decision of the QCAA.”