End of the $13 billion war between Airbus and Qatar Airways: a good solution for both?

Airbus and Qatar Airways have ended the battle that has been going on since the summer of 2021 over the quality of the paint on the A350s delivered to the Qatari airline. But is this exit from the crisis also good for both sides?

A quick reminder of the facts

As we reported, the Qatari airline found a paint defect on its A350s and the local authorities deemed it a flight safety hazard and part of the fleet was grounded. And although the European manufacturer acknowledged a problem, it disputed that a risk existed and refused to pay the compensation requested by Qatar Airways.

Pending a court ruling, Qatar Airways has refused delivery of two A350s and claimed damages for the grounded aircrafts. Airbus itself responded by claiming damages for the refused delivery and unilaterally cancelled an order for 50 A321Neo.

This was followed by further cancellations by Airbus, a court date in June 2023 and the feeling that the divorce was complete between the two partners.

In the case Airbus lost out on $13 billion in orders and Qatar had to turn to Boeing to replace the A321Neo but with an inevitable time delay. And the A350s were no longer flying.

But as the trial approached, the two parties reached an agreement and the legal proceedings were ended.

The agreement between Airbus and Qatar Airways

They announced at the beginning of the month that they were “pleased to have reached an amicable and mutually acceptable settlement of their legal dispute concerning the A350 surface degradation and the grounding of the A350. A repair project is now underway and both parties are eager to return these aircraft to safe operation “.

The terms of the settlement are of course confidential.

As expected, the communiqué specifies that this agreement is “not an acknowledgement of responsibility for either party“, which makes it possible to start again on a sound basis and to save the honour of both parties. No losers, no winners, and two partners happy to work together again.

Consequence? All cancelled orders are valid again. This still represents 50 A321Neo and 23 A350.

Strangely, this agreement was reached after the Qatar regulator was asked by the courts to justify the security risk it was claiming. As we thought in our previous article, the fact that it used this argument as a favour to its national airline seems to be confirmed.

But in such a deal there is often a winner and a loser and in this case the loser is easy to find.

And the loser is …. Boeing

AgainAgain, things worked out as we had anticipated.

Granted, both businesses have suffered some damage to their image, but this will soon be forgotten.

Airbus is getting $13 billion worth of orders and that’s no mean feat, even if we know that it has more than 10 years’ worth of orders ahead of it and that its biggest challenge today is not to sell but to beef up its production facilities.

Qatar Airways will finally receive the much-needed aircrafts it ordered. But above all it avoids finding itself in an uncomfortable position in front of…Boeing.

It is indeed difficult to negotiate with a supplier when he knows that you have no plan B, that he is not in competition. This would have put the airline in a very uncomfortable position and it is likely that it would have paid more for future orders than in a normal situation.

The loser in the end is Boeing, which could have hoped to win back a quasi-captive customer. This will not happen.

Bottom line

After two years of dispute over the faulty paintwork on the A350, Airbus and Qatar Airways have just reached a pre-trial settlement and are leaving as good friends as if nothing had happened.

And so Boeing will not get a captive customer fallen from the sky.

Image : A350 Qatar Airways by Vytautas Kielaitis via Shutterstock