Qatar Airways welcomes UK High Court injunction against Airbus

Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways said that it welcomes the decision of the UK High Court on Friday, February 18, 2022 which issued an injunction against Airbus. The essence of the order is that Airbus must not do anything between the date of the order and a further hearing in April that would adversely affect its ability to comply with any court order that Qatar Airways might obtain in relation to the purported cancellation of the A321 contract. As the order obtained is an injunction, there would be serious consequences for Airbus should this order be breached. The decision by the High Court will help to protect Qatar Airways against any future attempts by Airbus to suggest that it is unable to comply with the terms of the A321 contract. 

Qatar Airways also added that, the statement made by the Airbus CEO during the company’s latest earnings press event came as a surprise when he was referring to this litigation. He said: “We have to take steps to protect ourselves and protect the company and that’s basically what we are doing, but obviously we continue to try to resolve the situation in a more amicable way”. It is important to clarify that neither Qatar Airways nor its legal team are aware of any efforts by Airbus to try to resolve the situation in an amicable way; in fact, the actual situation is to the contrary. 

Qatar Airways also said that it was surprised to see Airbus' latest efforts to attempt to terminate their own contractual commitment to establish a full root cause analysis of the A350 Accelerated Surface Degradation which is currently impacting the A350 aircraft type. Qatar Airways also confirmed that it will continue its legal action to seek an order that requires Airbus to fully, properly and transparently investigate the A350 Accelerated Surface Degradation, to establish the conclusive and full root cause of an important condition which is degrading the surface of the aircraft beneath the paint.