airbus has confirmed it is seeking independent legal assessment of the airbus a350 paint
issue which airbus says is being subject to mischaracterization by one of its customers
although the aircraft manufacturer does not name qatar airways it means that it's the airline in
question around 20 qatar airways airbus a350s were left on the ground on the instructions of
the qatar civil aviation authority airbus says the airline in question misrepresents the problem by
calling it an airworthiness problem want to know about it well stay tuned to the video and watch
the video till the end hello guys welcome to the aviation exclusive hit the subscribe button and
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going to discuss airbus a350 paint saga continues and more manufacturer news so without any further
ado let's begin on december 20th qatar airways announced that it had issued legal proceedings
against airbus in the technology and construction division of the high court in london the airline
said that this action was a result of a failure to reach a constructive solution in relation to
its accelerated surface degradation condition on its airbus a350 aircraft the move comes after
a months-long battle that has seen qatar stop taking deliveries of the a350 wide body and lash
out publicly at airbus over the paint and surface quality of the planes airbus this month took the
unusual step of issuing a statement criticizing its customer's ongoing mischaracterization
of the issue and said it has been preparing for an independent legal review qatar said in a statement
it would lodge a case and is seeking a rapid resolution the carrier which has had 21 aircraft
idled on safety grounds by its local regulator started a legal process to ensure that airbus
will now address our legitimate concerns without further delay two weeks after airbus said it was
seriously considering seeking an independent legal assessment of the case but also said
it was open to further discussions to solve the matter qatar airways has firmly closed the door
we've sadly failed in all our attempts to reach a constructive solution with airbus in relation to
the accelerated surface degradation condition adversely impacting the airbus a350 aircraft
qatar airways has therefore been left with no alternative but to seek a rapid resolution of
this dispute by the courts the airline says it has now grounded 21 a350s with
pain peeling and degradation of the composite service one more than group ceo agbarro baker
mentioned on november 30th during his aviation club uk remarks and even ate more than in
august when qatar released its first press statement on the issue to share its dismay
in the opinion of the airline airbus has failed to take the degradation seriously
the legal proceedings have been commenced to ensure that airbus will now address our legitimate
concerns without further delay the qatar airways statement says we strongly believe that airbus
must undertake a thorough investigation of this condition to conclusively establish its full root
cause without a proper understanding of the root cause of the condition it's not possible for qatar
airways to establish whether any proposed repair solution will rectify the underlying condition
the latest move by qatar airways to complain at the court comes just 11 days after airbus
revealed that it was seeking an independent legal assessment in the ongoing a350 saga
to resolve the dispute in the face of ongoing mischaracterization of non-structural surface
degradation airbus commenced that one of its customers which it didn't name
as qatar airways was misrepresenting the surface degradation topic as an airworthiness issue which
represented a threat to international protocols on safety matters in an announcement issued at the
moment airbus has confirmed that it's searching for an authorized evaluation within the ongoing
a350 paint saga the plane maker commented within the face of the continuing mischaracterization of
non-structural floor degradation on its fleet of a350 plane by one in each of its clients
it has to turn out to be essential for airbus to hunt an unbiased authorized evaluation as an
approach ahead to resolve the dispute the try by this buyer to misrepresent this particular matter
as an airworthiness subject represents a menace to the worldwide protocols on security issues
airbus says that safety is its top priority and in a statement said the surface pain-related
findings have been thoroughly assessed by airbus and confirmed by the european aviation safety
agency easa as having no air worth in its impact on the a350 fleet the attempt by this
customer to misrepresent this specific topic as an airworthiness issue represents the threat to the
international protocols on safety matters while airbus regrets the need to follow such a path
it has become necessary to defend its position reputation airbus has worked actively with its
customers in order to minimize the impact and any inconvenience caused by this in-service surface
degradation on the aircraft these solutions have all been dismissed by the customer without
legitimate justification the legal assessment will provide a definitive definition of the
problem and provide a way for the air framer and the airline to resolve the issue the airbus a350
paint saga between airbus and guitar airways goes back to january guitar airways send an airbus
a350 to ireland to be painted for the world cup however some anomalies under the paintwork were
noted when the paintwork was removed from the aircraft before the new paintwork was applied
the aircraft was transferred to airbus and toluise where it is still standing today since then other
airbus a350s and the qatar airways fleet has been affected by the problem in august qatar
airways announced that 13 of its airbus a350s were due to the hull surface under the paint
decomposes faster according to the latest data from chiaviation.com around 20 airbus a350s of the
airlines are now on the ground routers recently reported that other airbus a350 operators are also
suffering from the paint problem none of these other airlines have publicly raised the issue
which further suggests that airbus is referring to qatar airways in its most recent statement
earlier agbar al baker ceo of qatar airways group commented on the situation of the airbus a350
we sincerely expect airbus to treat this matter with the necessary attention qatar airways accepts
nothing but aircraft that continue to offer their customers the highest possible level of safety
and the best travel experience they deserve with qatar's civil aviation regulator stepping in to
ground the aircraft it should indicate that the situation is fairly serious at the same time
however european regulator easa stated in august that it was not intended to take any action on
the issue noting that the issue didn't affect the aircraft structure or introduce any other risks
this is a position that it has held ever since sideline skeptics on both sides might claim
favoritism or bias between aviation regulators and their respective homegrown organizations although
it's difficult to determine at this point just how much of a legitimate safety concern
it is in terms of public information available this entire issue is quite a mystery as qatar
airways has been the only airline to go public about this problem however these concerns were
only voiced in a private maintenance message board used by airbus and a350 operators until now airbus
has been reluctant to let many airlines cancel planes preferring to delay delivery and keep
orders on its blocks but a big name endorsement for its latest assault on the cargo market
might have tipped the balance several industry sources said airbus will also easily find homes
for the in-demand a320 neos and is anxious to prop up weak wide body a350 production making
it a net winner from the deal they added qatar airways chief executive akbar al baker appeared
to confirm a major upcoming triple 7x order on tuesday days after airbus took the increasingly
bitter dispute to lawyers i was looking very positively at airbus freighters but they've
destroyed that relationship al baker told the south china morning post in an interview i don't
think that they'll ever get a single size of the order that we would have placed for the freighter
industry sources say qatar airways is expected to order at least 34 to 35 triple seven x freighters
to renew its current fleet ultimately with this issue officially moving into the court system the
public should get to see the problem in greater detail we would expect a great deal of evidence to
be presented with technical experts on both sides being called upon to weigh in on the seriousness
of qatar airways problems and if these issues do indeed pose a risk to flight safety airbus and
qatar areas are dead locked in a dispute that has been escalated with the move to the court system
coming days will show whether qatar airways issue on fuselage paint defects
indeed poses a threat to flight safety now that we've come to the end of this video i
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