Home Airline News Breaking: Airbus & Qatar Airways Settle Airbus A350 Legal Drama The legal action at the high court will now be discontinued. Paint degradation as seen on one of the affected aircraft. Photo: Qatar Airways via YouTube Qatar Airways and Airbus have come to an amicable settlement to their ongoing legal drama regarding Airbus A350 paint degradation. The dispute has been bubbling up for almost two years, ending up in the High Court in London. Commenting on the news, both parties released a statement saying, “Qatar Airways and Airbus are pleased to have reached an amicable and mutually agreeable settlement in relation to their legal dispute over A350 surface degradation and the grounding of A350 aircraft. A repair project is now Underway and both parties look forward to getting these aircraft safely back in the air.”The details of the settlement are confidential and the parties will now proceed to discontinue their legal claims. The settlement agreement is not an admission of liability for either party. This agreement will enable Qatar Airways and Airbus to move forward and work together as partners.” The row between the two parties has been ongoing for months, with plenty of mud-slinging in both directions. Now, it seems an amicable solution has been reached to enable the court case to be closed. Canceled aircraft orders to be reinstated Although the statement suggests neither party is being held accountable for the issues, the end of this court case couldn’t come soon enough. Both Qatar and Airbus have suffered reputational damage As a result, while questions of influence over regulators have served to tarnish trust in these companies. SIMPLEFLYING VIDEO OF THE DAY As the case closes, both parties signed off with the inference that they will be able to move forward as partners from here. First step in this process will be to reinstate the previously canceled orders for airplanes. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying. Back in January 2021, Qatar’s court filing, in which it sought Over $600 million in damages from Airbus, saw the planemaker cancel the airline’s order for 50 Airbus A321neos. This saw Qatar turning to Boeing for its narrowbody needs, placing an order for 50 737 MAX on January 31st, alongside orders for its 777X freighter. Airbus also removed outstanding Airbus A350 orders by Qatar from its order books – reportedly a reaction to Qatar’s repeated refusal of deliveries. Airbus and Qatar have both confirmed to Simple Flying that these orders will now all be reinstated. This adds a backlog of 50 A321neos and 23 Airbus A350s to the order book, and will see deliveries to the airline beginning again soon. Sorting out the grounded fleet Regardless of how Airbus and Qatar feel about each other right now, working together is going to be unavoidable. Qatar does have 43 A350s in its fleet, including 19 of the larger -1000 and 34 of the -900 variant. Reportedly, 22 of these aircraft are currently grounded by the QCAA due to damage to the paintwork. Photo: Vincenzo Pace I Simple Flying Qatar is going to want to see these airplanes repaired, presumably at a cost to Airbus. Already, other operators with less severe paint cracking have had their aircraft treated, a process that essentially involves repainting the planes. Qatar’s affected A350s will be dealt with, presumably at a cost to Airbus. Future aircraft should not have such an issue, as Airbus has already been installing a new type of copper foil on some of its newly produced aircraft. This modification was implemented to alleviate some of the weight of the airplane, and had the happy side effect of also reducing paint cracking. What do you think about this resolution? Let us know in the comments. Qatar Airways IATA/ICAO Code: QR/QTR Airline Type: Full Service Carrier Hub(s): Doha Hamad International Airport Year Founded: 1993 Alliance: oneworld CEO: Akbar Al Baker Country: Qatar Airbus Stock Code: AIR Date Founded: 1970- 12-18 CEO: Guillaume Faury Headquarters Location: Toulouse, France Key Product Lines: Airbus A220, Airbus A320, Airbus A330, Airbus A340, Airbus A350, Airbus A380 Business Type: Planemaker