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Qatar Airways is claiming more than $600 million in damages from Airbus, reports Reuters this week.
The company that operates with a fleet of more than fifty A350s, has been at loggerheads with Airbus for a long time. The paint on these A350s is peeling much faster than expected. A solution to the problems has not yet been resolved, which has led to deliveries of new A350s being suspended and 21 of the more than 50 machines in the past six months. have been grounded.
Last month Qatar Airways dragged the European aircraft manufacturer to already in court in London. With the procedure, the company hopes to force an investigation into the paint problems, but the company also wants to see compensation. To compensate for the damage that the Qatari company has already suffered, it mentions an amount of 618 million dollars. On top of that, an additional four million dollars is demanded for every day that the aircraft cannot take the air.
It is still not entirely clear what the exact cause of the paint problems is. Airbus itself describes the problem as “early surface wear.” The mesh layer could be an explanation for the origin of the peeling. As with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the fuselage of the Airbus A350 is made with composite instead of aluminum. Because the outside of the device is not made of metal, the extra mesh layer is needed to be able to conduct a lightning strike, for example. However, this extra layer means that the paint adheres less well. Complicating matters even more is that paint expands and contracts with temperature, while carbon fiber does not.
In the initial phase of the deterioration, it only concerns optical damage. The deteriorating layer does not immediately endanger the safety of the devices. However, at Qatar Airways and at least one other airline, the wear and tear would be so great that holes started to form in the mesh layer under the paint. That could pose a security risk.
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