Qatar Airways said on Thursday that it had been ordered by regulators in the Gulf state to ground 13 of its Airbus A350 aircraft over the rapid degradation of fuselage surfaces.
Qatar Airways said in a statement that it had been forced to press out-of-service Airbus A330 aircraft back into operation to fill the gap left by the grounding of the 13 aircraft.
Qatar Airways has 34 A350-900 types and 19 A350-1000s in its fleet, according to an Airbus document.
“The airline is working with its regulator to ensure the continued safety of all passengers… and following the explicit written instruction of (the airline’s) regulator, 13 aircraft have now been grounded,” the airline said.
Qatar Airways is regulated by the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority.
Qatar Airways expects Airbus to have established the root cause and permanently corrected the underlying condition to the satisfaction of the regulator before we take delivery of any further A350 aircraft.
The statement said the airline was “cooperating with all the leasing companies affected by this A350 grounding who have started to inspect their impacted aircraft”, without giving details of other affected parties.