Qatar Airways and Airbus kiss and make up – the A350 fleet will return to the skies

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Dubious says:

  2 Feb2 February 03:22

  I was reading two related things of note:

  1. The design of lightening protection mesh has been altered in the rear section of the aircraft which has helped reduce the issue.

  2. The High court ordered Qatar Airways to provide copies of the communications between itself and the regulator, QCAA. I suppose they really didn’t want to do that…

  • Rhys says:

    2 Feb2 February 07:06

    I’m not sure the new lightning protection can be retrofitted onto existing aircraft – I’ll be intrigued to see if we find out.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      2 Feb2 February 10:49

      Will be easiest to retrofit when a plane has it’s C/D check when they basically remove everything that’s removable and give it a thorough going over.

    • BJ says:

      2 Feb2 February 11:36

      According to the SF article airbus has already been fixing the paint issue for other carriers but it didn’t specify what the fix was.

  • His Holyness says:

    2 Feb2 February 11:26

    Collusion between QR and QCAA? Surely not!

    • ADS says:

      2 Feb2 February 12:15

      Maybe this will make Qatar’s CAA think twice about using the “safety card” next time QR asks them for help in a commercial dispute !

• BJ says:

  2 Feb2 February 06:35

  Posted in chat this morning but I’ll repeat it here too as more may see. QR has added a third daily rotation to Phuket so that should mean a few welcome extra reward seats to Thailand in continued absence of BA to BKK.

  • polly says:

    2 Feb2 February 16:43

    Yep, waiting on a sale now. They have to fill all those 29 A350s now…..

• Ian says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:26

  Qatar Airways did not cancel the A321NEO order. Airbus cancelled the order claiming it had the right to do so because the airline was refusing to take delivery of A350 aircraft.

• VL says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:32

  If there’s nothing wrong with the paint job why Airbus is changing it for future aircrafts. It’ll be a complete waste of time and money to hear Airbus barristers going to argue about this in court why they are changing the manufacturing if there’s no fault in the first place.

  • Ian says:

    2 Feb2 February 07:40

    Airbus didn’t say there was no fault, they were contesting the claim that it was a safety issue.

    • Rhys says:

      2 Feb2 February 08:06

      …and actually Airbus patented the new lighting protection system years ago because it was lighter – before this issue came to light – so it’s just a happy side effect that it also prevents the paint issues.

• Greenpen says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:55

  All very murky and I guess we’ll never know the real reasons for this dispute.

  Glad the B737 MAX order is cancelled as I actively avoid this aeroplane.

• Peter says:

  2 Feb2 February 08:47

  Imagine damage is done, they swapped my A350 Q-suite flight in February last year with a A330 with a horrible seat. I prefer Etihad and Emirates.

  • Patrick C says:

    2 Feb2 February 10:22

    This is strange as Emirates probably has the worst business class seat & service (especially older aircraft). Emirates is only good in economy or first.

    • Peter says:

      2 Feb2 February 11:23

      Emirates 777 is significantly better than Qatar’s A330 or A320, and Emirates A380 is also much better than Qatar’s A380, it’s just that all the reviews are always about the Q-suite

      • Rob says:

        2 Feb2 February 11:37

        The refurbed Emirates 777s are 2-3-2 in Business Class, meaning that you have a chance of a middle seat. They are not ‘suites’, just standard albeit lie-flat seats where you are directly next to your neighbour. Obviously they don’t compare well to a Qatar A330/A320 BUT you’re rather unfairly taking the newest Emirates product and comparing it to the worst Qatar long haul seat or a seat on a short haul plane.

        • Tom says:

          2 Feb2 February 14:21

          The slightly staggered 2-2 LOPA on the QR A320s with flat beds are a far nicer way to fly than being in the middle seat of a block of 3 on an Emirates 777.

      • Jonathan says:

        2 Feb2 February 13:11

        What are talking about @Peter & @Rob ?

        I’ve just checked SeatGuru and all narrowbody aircraft used by QR (all of which are A320 family, no Boeing) and all Business class seats are where you’re sat directly next another Business class seat, almost certainly a bit like with the defunct BA1/2/3/4 seats

        Luckily for most (or a large number of) QR passengers, you get usually get put in a wide body aircraft !

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

          2 Feb2 February 13:39

          Seat guru is unreliable

          Use http://www.aerolopa.com instead.

• LittleNick says:

  2 Feb2 February 09:56

  Excellent, glad they’ve both come to their senses, the only winners in this saga are the lawyers as per. Wondered how long this has been agreed as I have seen A350s in the flight schedules for later this year for at least a week now.

  • Rhys says:

    2 Feb2 February 10:22

    Not all the A350s were grounded – only less than half

• vlcnc says:

  2 Feb2 February 10:17

  This was always going this way, if anything I am surprised Airbus let it get to court. Qatar Airways was never keen on Boeing 737’s as a plane (not to mention retraining and recertification required for pilots), and I think they had the long-range Airbus A320’s in mind for long and thin routes which Boeing has no solution for.

  • Jonathan says:

    2 Feb2 February 13:16

    Lots of airlines also prefer Airbus’ A320 family to Boeing’s 737, unless you go back to when the 737 first came into the skies, although it had to compete with its sibling the 757 for some markets !

    • vlcnc says:

      2 Feb2 February 15:41

      I prefer A320 as a plane, far more comfortable and has bigger windows. Also better safety record than the 737 for which Boeing has been found out covering up it’s own negligence over safety issues that resulted in at least two crashes where a lot of people died.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.