It’s final, no more new Airbus planes for Qatar Airways

It all started from paint damage on the surface of the fuselage of their Airbus A350s. The row between Qatar Airways and Airbus slowly erupted until reports of Airbus cancelling all outstanding orders from Qatar Airways floated. Upon checking Airbus’ Orders and Deliveries list as of August 2022, everything is confirmed. There will no longer be any new Airbus planes that will be headed to Qatar Airways.

Airbus has indeed cancelled all 19 outstanding A350-1000s bound for Qatar Airways, just a few months shy from the FIFA World Cup happening in Doha, Qatar. In other words, Qatar is left with outstanding orders from Boeing, which is somehow complicated.

Airbus deliveries for Qatar Airways

Based on Airbus’ latest orders and deliveries report, Qatar Airways has had 143 Airbus planes ordered and delivered. There are no more pending deliveries.

• 39 A320ceo
• 6 A321ceo
• 13 A330-200
• 13 A330-300
• 4 A340-500
• 34 A350-900
• 19 A350-1000
• 10 A380-800

This list may exclude leased Airbus aircraft.

If you factored in orders that Airbus has cancelled, that would be an additional 69 aircraft. These are fifty A321neo and nineteen A350-1000.

The row between Qatar Airways and Airbus

Ironically, Qatar Airways was the launch customer of the A350-900 and A350-1000. Sadly, the relationship between Airbus and Qatar Airways ends with the A350.

According to a report from Reuters, Qatar Airways is suing Airbus for at least $1.4 billion after almost half its A350 fleet was grounded by Qatar’s regulator over premature surface damage.

Qatar Airways has refused to take delivery of more A350s until it receives a deeper explanation of damaged or missing patches of anti-lightning mesh left exposed by peeling paint.

Airbus has acknowledged quality problems on the jets but denied any safety risk from gaps in the protective sub-layer, saying there is ample backup.

In April of this year, Airbus cancelled 50 A321neo orders from Qatar Airways after the UK’s high court denied Qatar Airways a request to force Airbus to keep building A321neo.

Honestly, I don’t think things will get better sooner, or maybe it will never be. This may force Qatar Airways to become an all-Boeing operator in the coming years.

FIFA World Cup 2022

Qatar Airways has been preparing for the FIFA World Cup for three years. While the recent Airbus cancellations may be a blow to Qatar Airways’ goal of flying 1.2 million passengers just for that significant event itself, it may not stop the airline from leasing planes from other airlines. Qatar Airways was also forced to reactivate its entire A380 fleet to address the capacity needed

The airline’s CEO, Akbar Al Baker, has previously admitted that purchasing the A380 was the airline’s biggest mistake. In 2021, Akbar Al Baker said they are retiring 5 of 10 A380s. It seems that will not happen anytime soon as Qatar Airways needs the aircraft in place of the A350 orders, which were dropped like a hot potato.

Pending Boeing orders

Now that Airbus is out of the picture, Qatar Airways is left with outstanding Boeing orders. Still to be delivered are 25 B737 MAX 10, one B777-300ER, 23 B787-9, 50 B777-9X, and 24 B777-8X. However, the Boeing 777-9X and -8X will not be ready until earliest 2025. The B737 MAX 10 is not yet certified. This leaves Qatar Airways with the Boeing 787-9.

However, Boeing has suspended deliveries of the B787 and is still set to resume deliveries in the next few weeks. For context, Boeing has suspended 787 deliveries since May 2021 due to production issues. Boeing has also slowed down the rate of production to five aircraft per month. American Airlines and United are the first to take deliveries when deliveries resume.

Aside from leasing more planes to address the capacity for FIFA World Cup 2022, it seems like Qatar Airways’ only hope is for Boeing to deliver the 787s sooner and faster. The FWC happens from November to December; Qatar Airways will definitely, need more planes for this.