Airbus has withdrawn 19 firm orders for the A350-1000 that belonged to Qatar Airways, as the manufacturer’s August orders and deliveries report showed.
The aircraft were part of a larger order of 38 units, but disagreements between the planemaker and its customer culminated in the unilateral termination by Airbus.
Qatar Airways has filed a lawsuit against Airbus in a British court, seeking massive damages over paint degradation issues on more than 20 A350 jets it received.
The Qatari airline is the launch customer for the widebody, having received the first A350-900 in December 2014. The carrier was also the first to operate the larger-capacity variant, the A350-1000, in 2018. Qatar remains the largest operator of the A350-1000, with 19 aircraft.
Currently, Qatar’s A350 fleet is the second largest in the world, at 53 aircraft, behind Singapore Airlines. However, most planes are parked because of fuselage problems.
With the suppression of the order from the Middle East airline, the A350-1000 now has 149 aircraft, 65 of which have been delivered.
