Qatar Airways refuses delivery of A380 with wing faults

Qatar Airways will receive the upgraded version of the Airbus A380 rather than taking delivery of the superjumbo with wing faults requiring modifications later, its CEO has said.

“Qatar Air insisted that Airbus provide us with the new, certified wing for the A380 and Airbus has kindly obliged,” Akbar Al Baker said at the first day of the Farnborough International Air Show. “We will receive the A380 with the new wing which will not require modification,” he added.

The Doha-based carrier, which has five of the double-decker aircraft on order, said it will receive its first A380 in January 2014. Toulouse, France-based Airbus last month said it will need to ground its A380 aircraft for up to eight weeks while the aircraft undergoes permanent repair work to address wing cracks.

The wing cracks, caused by new technologies and insufficient design controls, is currently implementing interim repairs. Airbus plans to introduce a permanent solution to the flaw this year and start delivering the aircraft free of the defect by January 2014.

Airbus has 75 A380s in service today with 253 on order. Service and repair work have cost parent company EADSmore than $315m. The interim fix has been applied to more than a third of those in service.

source: Arabian Business

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