Airbus appears to have changed design of A350 aircraft

Robert Besser
24 Jan 2023, 13:10 GMT+10

Airbus has changed the design of its A350 passenger jets amid a $2 billion dispute with Qatar Airways over damage to the surface of the aircraft
The two companies have been involved in a court case revolving around the safety of flaking paint that exposed corrosion or gaps in a sub-layer of metallic lightning protection
This week, Qatar Airways told a London court that Airbus had began implementing the surface changes and called for more information

PARIS, France: Airbus has changed the design of its A350 passenger jets amid a $2 billion dispute with Qatar Airways over damage to the surface of the aircraft.

The two companies have been involved in a court case revolving around the safety of flaking paint that exposed corrosion or gaps in a sub-layer of metallic lightning protection.

This week, Qatar Airways told a London court that Airbus had begun implementing the surface changes and called for more information. Meanwhile, Airbus confirmed that it had partly completed the changes, which began late last year.

The decision to start using a new design was significant to the case, said Judge David Waksman, during preliminary hearings.

Qatar Airways has blamed the damage on a design defect, but Airbus claims the former design remains state of the art and safe.

The A350 is a passenger plane mainly made of carbon and is competing with Boeing's 787 Dreamliner.

According to European regulators, the jets are safe, despite Qatar Airways claiming that this assessment cannot be guaranteed without more detailed analysis.

Qatar Airlines said it is requesting access to raw modeling data, so its technical experts can simulate the impact of a lightning strike.

After Airbus was overruled in a previous bid to use a special blocking law defending French interests, Qatar Airways accused Airbus of trying to prevent the release of data that could be valuable to its case.

But in a rare note of compromise, lawyers for the two companies provisionally agreed to not publicize the data.

Several other airlines have reported flaws in the painted surface of A350s, but only Qatar Airways stopped flying them.

Watch latest videos

News RELEASES

Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Nepal National.

More Information

12 ℃

Partly Cloudy in Kathmandu

Business

Section

Officials hopeful as UK new car sales rise 14 percent in January

LONDON, England: The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has reported that new car registrations in the UK rose for ...

Big jump in sales for Foxconn as China ends Covid restrictions

TAIPEI, Taiwan: After the end of COVID-19 disruptions in China, Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker and major ...

U.S. stocks get boost from Fed chair, Nasdaq surges 226 points

NEW YORK, New York - Stocks ended sharply higher on Tuesday following mixed comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.Powell ...

Media reports US to sue Amazon claiming antitrust violations

NEW YORK CITY, New York: The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the US Federal Trade Commission is preparing ...

Blaming cost of manufacturing, Nestle to raise prices for second year

VEVEY, Switzerland: In an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung this week, Nestle's Chief Executive Mark Schneider said the world's largest ...

Fed fails to cool economy as US sees 517,000 jobs created in January

WASHINGTON D.C.: Despite the efforts of the Federal Reserve Bank to cool the job market to help curb record-high inflation, ...

Southeast Asia

Section