In the midst of its dispute with Qatar Airways, Airbus announced that it will implement design changes to its A350. The European giant and the Gulf airline have been in dispute for months in court. The center of the conflict lies in the possible impact on the safety of the model that the deterioration of the aircraft’s paintwork could cause. According to Qatar, the paintwork damage exposes the lightning protection layer, with a consequent impact on the model’s airworthiness.
As reported by Reuters, which has been following the case since its inception in 2021, Airbus was already studying the application of a new type of protection called perforated copper foil (PCF) at that time. The manufacturer claims that, in addition to being lighter than the currently used expanded copper foil (ECF), it would also reduce cracking.
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Qatar indicated yesterday (Thursday 19) that Airbus had begun implementing the change. It also asked the London court hearing the case to require the company to disclose more information about it. The manufacturer confirmed its “partial use” since late last year. At the end of the hearing, David Waksman, the judge presiding over the dispute, called the decision to begin implementing the new design “significant to the case.”
Tense exchanges took place during the hearing. Airbus said French security services had expressed concern about sharing data on its aircraft, some of which are used by European governments. Qatar, for its part, argued that this is just a new tactic by the manufacturer to block the disclosure of data that could be valuable to its case. The European company had previously -and unsuccessfully- tried to use a special French defense law to block Qatar’s requests for more information about its planes.
