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Qatar Airways will tie up around a quarter of its Airbus A350 fleet, and it looks like that could take some time.
Qatar Airways A350 fuselage issues
For several months, Qatar Airways has been having problems with its A350 fleet. The airline noted an “important condition” in the entire A350 fleet, that “the surface of the fuselage under the paint is degrading at an accelerated rate”. A few months ago, Qatar Airways revealed that it will stop taking delivery of Airbus A350s until the underlying issue is identified and resolved. As I will explain below, the airline is now going one step further.
As Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker describes this problem:
“With this latest development, we sincerely expect Airbus to address this issue with the appropriate attention it requires. Qatar Airways will not accept anything other than aircraft that continue to provide its customers with the highest possible level of safety and the best travel experience they deserve. Qatar Airways expects Airbus to establish the root cause and permanently correct the underlying condition to the satisfaction of Qatar Airways and our dispatcher before taking delivery of any further A350 aircraft. “
Qatar Airways was the launch customer for the Airbus A350-900 and A350-1000 and has the largest A350 fleet in the world. The airline currently has 53 of these planes in its fleet and has 23 more on order.
Qatar Airways is now shutting down some A350s
While Qatar Airways had already stopped accepting delivery of new A350s, the airline is now taking its response to the next level. Qatar Airways will ground 13 of its Airbus A350s due to these issues.
It is stated that this development follows “explicit written instructions” from the regulator of Qatar Airways requiring these planes to be immobilized to ensure the continued safety of all passengers.
These planes were immobilized immediately and will not be returned to service until the root cause has been established and a satisfactory solution is made available to permanently correct the underlying problem. It doesn’t seem like an overnight fix to me, so I would expect these planes to be parked for a while.
Throughout the pandemic, Qatar Airways has used its fleet of fuel-efficient A350s as the backbone of long-haul operations, flying nearly all of these planes around the world. As you might expect, grounding about a quarter of these aircraft will have major operational impacts.
Qatar Airways is putting its A330 fleet back into service with immediate effect (the fleet was being phased out), in order to offset part of the impact of the immobilized A350 fleet. The airline is also currently looking for other solutions (could we see the A380 fleet reactivated soon ?!).
The A330s are unlikely to operate very long-haul flights. It is therefore likely that Qatar Airways will favor ultra long-haul routes for the A350s and 777s, and you will then be more likely to see A330s operating on regional routes. So, if you are traveling with Qatar Airways in the days and weeks to come, keep an eye out for possible aircraft swaps.
At the end of the line
Qatar Airways has encountered issues with the fuselage surface under paint degrading at an accelerated rate on A350 aircraft. The airline began by no longer accepting new deliveries from Airbus, and the airline is now immobilizing about a quarter of its A350 fleet, allegedly on instructions from regulators.
I’m curious to see how this goes – it doesn’t look like this issue is going to be fixed any time soon. Interestingly, Qatar Airways appears to be the only airline to report these issues so far.
What do you think of the immobilization of part of its A350 fleet by Qatar Airways?
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