On 5th of August, Qatar Airways announced through its official website that it had grounded 13 of it's Airbus A350 aircrafts complying to the instructions from state Regulator Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA).
Now, A Bloomberg report says , according to Qatar Airways, the rapidly deteriorating surface paint that has led to the grounding of 16 of its Airbus SE A350 aircraft has further affected the lightning protection on Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic( CFRP) fuselage and also caused cracks on the composite monolithic structure.
Further heating up the scenario , the Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker also disputed a statement from Airbus that it had identified the cause of the problem, which the European planemaker said is limited to surface paint and doesn’t affect airworthiness.
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The paint issue on carbon fibre took shape in the month of January 21, a situation with one of the Qatar Airways aircraft ( A7-ALL) at Shannon triggered a form of Alarm regarding the probable deterioration of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) skin of A350 Aircraft Fuselage underneath the Paint layer.
When the paint hangar staffs removed the old paint for the aircraft, they found "cracks" in the aircraft's composite fuselage skin-and this aircraft was only delivered to Qatar Airways in November 2016, and the aircraft is not old enough. A little over 4 years.
However , the matter died subsequently in front of Media , as Airbus termed it as Superficial damage to the Carbon composite skin and the Aircraft was flown to toulouse for Further Repair work.
A7-ALL was subsequently flown as a ferry flight to TLS for Airbus team inspections and repair . But, in the month of August 21, the matter was highlighted again after mass grounding of these Airbus A350 aircrafts by the Qatar Airways.
Since then , Sixteen A350s have been grounded by Qatari regulators, and Qatar Airways has found more showing signs of the accelerated paint deterioration, and as per the Group CEO Al Baker, Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA) regulators have warned of more aircraft groundings. And the awaited solution from Airbus must be approved by the regulators and by Qatar Air, he said.
Group Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker also disputed a statement from Airbus that it had identified the cause of the problem, which the European planemaker said is limited to surface paint and doesn’t affect airworthiness.
“It is a problem with the paint that has led to us getting deterioration on the lightning protection of the fuselage and cracks appearing on the composite,” Al Baker said in an interview at an airline industry summit in Boston. The paint is not deteriorating on metal areas of the aircraft, and only where there is “aerodynamic stress,” he said.
“We also need to make it very clear we will not take deliveries of any aircraft unless there is a fix for the problem they have that is acceptable to both our regulator and the airline,” he said.
Airbus says, the current issue does not affect the Airworthiness of the aircraft . In a separate interview Sunday at the same gathering, hosted by the International Air Transport Association, Airbus Chief Executive Officer Guilluame Faury said,
"There’s no reason for the planes to be grounded" , “We’re trying to resolve the dispute and the disagreement, of course,” Faury said when asked about the situation with Qatar Airways.
Carbon fibres are non-conducting in nature , and to increase the electrical conductivity on the surface of the A350, Airbus embeds metallic foils in the panels made up of CFRP (Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic).
A “thorough assessment” of the paint problem was shared with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency for evaluation, Airbus said in a follow-up email. “It was demonstrated that there is no airworthiness impact on the fleet, allowing for continued operations.”
In a separate statement, EASA said it visited the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority and viewed some of the affected planes in the month of September.
“Despite the degraded paint condition, EASA has not at this time identified any airworthiness concerns with the A350 due to the paint deterioration, including the composite structure and the lightning protection of the aircraft,” the European agency said.
Airbus has provided additional guidelines to A350 operators on stripping and painting the aircraft, and no additional inspections are required beyond normal scheduled maintenance, it said.
About the upcoming Airbus A350 Freighter version , Al Baker indicated that they might go to rival Boeing , for a competing model, but won’t buy any more A350s from Airbus until the surface issue is fixed.
“They should be very frank and come out very open and say they still don’t know what is the problem,” Al Baker said. “They cannot just presume what is the problem. Today there is no fix.”
Qatar Airways has a fleet of 53 Airbus A350s out of which 34 are A350-900 types and 19 are A350-1000 series. The remaining of Qatar Airways order with Airbus, that would take the total to 76 aircrafts are yet to be delivered.
