Airbus Confirms Cancellation of Pending Qatar A350 Orders

DALLAS - Airbus confirmed that it had canceled all of Qatar Airways' (QR) outstanding A350 orders, upping the stakes in its legal and safety dispute with the Gulf carrier.

A representative for Airbus said, that the European airframe confirmed that it had cleared the backlog of 19 QR A350s.

The infrequent order cancellation was disclosed in monthly order data released yesterday, September 8, confirming a decision covered back in August, when Airbus decided to cancel QR's whole outstanding A350 order. Although at the time, neither business had made an official statement, Reuters cited two industry sources.

To recap, the order cancellation was related to the significant legal disagreement between the two businesses over the state of the Airbus A350s. While Airbus maintains that the damage is only cosmetic, QR asserts that the aircraft's fuselage is deteriorating at an accelerated rate.

As the Qatari aviation regulator grounded these A350s, QR declined to accept any additional deliveries of the type until the problem is resolved. Airbus, meanwhile, refuses to really acknowledge the problems and asserts that QR's refusal to accept delivery of these aircraft gives it the right to terminate the contract.

A total of 74 Airbus A350s, comprising 34 A350-900s and 40 A350-1000s, were planned for QR's fleet. There were still 21 A350-1000 QR orders pending before Airbus' final order cancellation.

Featured image: QR became the global launch customer of the A350-1000, receiving its first example in February 2018. Photo: Qatar Airways.