PARIS (Agefi-Dow Jones)–The European aeronautics and defense group Airbus has canceled a contract for the delivery of 50 A321s to Qatar Airways, further accentuating the tension between the two companies, in dispute over another aircraft, the A350.
“We confirm that we have terminated the contract on 50 A321s with Qatar Airways in accordance with our rights,” a spokesperson for the group told Agefi-Dow Jones on Friday. The cancellation of the contract had previously been reported by Bloomberg.
Qatar Airways was not immediately available to comment on this information.
These A321s, including 10 copies of the A321 LR (for long range), were to be delivered from 2023 to the Qatari company.
The cancellation of this contract comes as Airbus and Qatar Airways face off in court to settle their dispute over the wear of the surface of the fuselages of certain wide-body A350s.
Qatar Airways, which grounded 21 planes from its A350 fleet because of this degradation, brought this dispute to the High Court of Justice in London in December. According to several media, the airline would claim compensation of 618 million dollars, or approximately 545 million euros, from Airbus.
The European group refuses to pay financial compensation, judging that the problems invoked by Qatar Airways justify neither the immobilization of the aircraft, nor the refusal to take delivery of other A350s ordered by the company.
Airbus has repeatedly stressed that the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has confirmed that the damage to the fuselage surfaces has no impact on the flight ability of the A350 fleet.
-Julien Marion, Agefi-Dow Jones; +33 (0)1 41 27 47 94; [email protected] ed: LBO
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January 21, 2022 02:10 ET (07:10 GMT)