[Economics] Qatar Airways says Airbus has raised the limit for surface damage in the A350

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Reuters
Qatar Airways says Airbus has raised the limit for surface damage in the A350
4 hours ago
Qatar Airways says Airbus has raised the limit for surface damage in the A350
© Reuters
Qatar Airways says Airbus has raised the limit for surface damage in the A350
LONDON (Reuters) - Qatar Airways accused Airbus on Thursday of falsifying a dispute over safety and contract terms by raising the limit on surface damage to the A350 plane.

Qatar Airways says Airbus has raised the limit for surface damage in the A350
© Reuters Qatar Airways says Airbus has raised the limit for surface damage in the A350
The two sides have been locked in a major dispute over damage to the lightning protection coating of the A350, which Qatar says forced to ground the plane.

"It simply makes the goal smaller on their side in the middle of the game," Qatar Airways' lawyer Philip Shepherd told a court hearing in London, speaking of what he described as a move by Airbus to raise the damage limit.

An Airbus spokesman said the Qatar Airways statement was a "distortion of the facts", and the planemaker also told a court in London that relations with the Gulf airline had "seriously broken down".

Qatar Airways is seeking to extend a court order preventing the planemaker from canceling the contract for the A321neo in response to Qatar's refusal to take delivery of additional A350s.

"One would certainly not want to sit under a roof like that," Shepherd said of the damage.

Airbus stresses that the observed damage is never close to the forty percent missing from the protective net that would be necessary to cause a safety problem, noting the aircraft's back-up protection.

Airbus said in court filings that Qatar Airways had an economic interest in grounding the A350 unnecessarily to seek compensation for losses due to weak demand. Qatar Airways stresses that it will have a shortfall in capacity ahead of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar this year.

(Prepared by Mahmoud Salama and Ahmed Maher for the Arab Bulletin)