Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) is considering delaying its previously announced ramp-up in A350 production from five to six units per month until late 2023 amidst an ongoing dispute with Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) coupled with the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg has reported, citing internal sources.
The European manufacturer originally planned to increase its A350 roll out rate in late 2022 but later deferred that to early 2023.
In a statement to Reuters, Airbus said it continued "to expect to increase the A350 production rate from around five per month to around six in early 2023".
The ch-aviation fleets module shows Airbus currently has orders for 325 A350-900s and 100 A350-1000s. The type's freighter variant has yet to be listed.
The current aeropolitical situation has cast doubt over a significant portion of the A350 backlog, including but not limited to:
- thirteen A350-900s ordered by Aeroflot (SU, Moscow Sheremetyevo), which cannot be delivered to the carrier due to the sanctions imposed on Russia (although Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International) has already expressed interest in taking them over),
- sixteen A350-1000s ordered by IranAir (IR, Tehran Mehrabad), which is also subject to international sanctions, and
- twenty-one A350-1000s ordered by Qatar Airways, which refused to take any more units of the type pending the resolution of the legal dispute over fuselage paint deterioration.
