Qatar to defer purchase of A380 aircraft

Qatar Airways is to defer delivery of its five A380 aircraft following concerns over the cracks in the wings of the Superjumbo.

Speaking at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, Qatar's chief executive Akbar Al Baker said: " "We'll have to defer delivery of the A380 until more details are clear."

Airbus A380s around the world are being inspected for wing cracks after safety engineers found cracks in almost all the planes inspected. The European manufacturer has introduced a repair that is being retrofitted to the aircraft.

Industry analyst Saj Ahmad, commenting on the Qatar decision said: “Airbus has been on damage limitation ever since the emergence to two different types of wing cracks emerged on the A380 fleet. What makes it worse for them, aside from the financial outlay of having to redesign parts to then put into place in its supply and production system is the cost it will have to pay key customers like Emirates for the downtime of their A380s while retrofitting of parts occurs.

 “ It's no surprise then that Qatar Airways is loathe to take delivery of any A380s that will have defective wing components so deferral was the only option. Airbus has said that for the interim, it will still manufacture and delivery A380s with the current wing rib faulty parts until the supply chain changes to newer parts being developed right now - but that's no consolation to the likes of Qatar Airways who are hoping to take delivery of billions of dollars worth of airplanes to augment their rapidly growing airline business.

“Qatar Airways is already exposed to the ongoing delays as launch customer on the A350XWB family across all three variants, as well as the stark possibility of the A320neo also being delayed due to pylon and wing loading issues - it's things like this that will invariably push them to Boeing for more 777-300ERs in the interim. Airbus may well have a great presence in the GCC, but it is not doing itself any favours when one of its biggest customers questions its flagship product - this is not a vote of confidence and begs questions as to what other concerns Qatar Airways has about the A380."

Article Source : Arabian Aerospace