Judge David Waksman has ordered the court case brought by Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) against Airbus in relation to the deterioration of A350s' fuselages be split into two parts, likely extending the time needed to bring closure to the dispute, Reuters has reported.
With the trial set to commence in June 2023, more than 18 months after the initial lawsuit was filed, the judge has decided that the first case will focus solely on liability for the deterioration while the second will deal with damages. Qatar Airways alleges that Airbus bears liability for the premature damage its A350s incurred and is asking for around USD2 billion in compensation which, when counted on a per-day basis, is likely to increase until the case goes to trial.
Judge Waksman stressed that the sheer volume of evidence and pleadings made it impractical to cover all aspects of the lawsuit in a single case. The motion to split it was filed by Airbus, which welcomed the decision.
After the Qatari Civil Aviation Authority grounded some of Qatar Airways' A350s during the course of 2021, the airline filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer in December 2021. In response, Airbus lodged its own lawsuit over the airline's failure to accept deliveries and additionally axed the carrier's A321neo orders. While other A350 operators reported similar issues, the QCAA is the only regulator to have taken action in relation to the fuselage deterioration. Airbus maintains that the issue is not an airworthiness problem.
Pre-trial court proceedings recently focused on procedural issues over access to documents and the quality of submissions of the respective parties. Among other points, Airbus has raised concerns about the nature of the relationship between Qatar Airways and the QCAA, while the airline demanded that Airbus discloses its service agreements with other A350 operators.
In response to the airline missing deadlines for taking deliveries of a number of A350s, Airbus cancelled all of its remaining orders for the type.
The ch-aviation fleets module shows that currently, twenty-two out of Qatar Airways' thirty-four A350-900s ad seven out of its nineteen A350-1000s are grounded.
