DUBAI: A mystery row between Airbus and Qatar Airways, one of its biggest customers, has finally been made public.
The airline told Reuters on Tuesday the surface below the paint on some of its Airbus A350s was degrading at an accelerated rate.
It warned it would not take more deliveries of the widebody jet until the alleged issue was fixed.
It follows remarks from Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al-Baker last week and a warning that his airline might stop taking deliveries from the French planemaker this year over an unspecified “serious” issue.
“We have an issue with Airbus we need to settle, and if we are not able to settle that serious issue we have with them, we will refuse to take any aircraft from them,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
The airline chief had earlier criticized Airbus’s giant A380 jets over their operational cost. However, he said his dissatisfaction with that aircraft was not the subject of the latest dispute.
An Airbus spokesperson told Reuters the company was always in talks with its customers but that such talks were confidential.
