Qatar Airways is set to lease at least four Boeing 777 aircraft from Cathay Pacific as its row with Airbus over Airbus A350 paint continues to intensify. The news was broken by the South China Morning Post and comes after Airbus revealed it was seeking an independent legal assessment of the situation last week.

Since January, a drama has been brewing between Airbus and Qatar Airways regarding the Airbus A350. It started when an Airbus A350 flew to Dublin to be repainted, and faster than expected deterioration was found on the fuselage. Airbus maintains that this is cosmetic and doesn't affect airworthiness, but Qatar Airways disagrees.

Leasing jets to cover capacity

According to data from ch-aviation.com, at least 21 of Qatar Airways' 53 Airbus A350 aircraft are currently grounded over the surface degradation row with Airbus. This equates to 6,163 of Qatar Airways' 60,140, roughly 10% of the airline's total capacity.

As Qatar Airways ramps up its operations, especially around the holidays, this capacity deficit is starting to become noticeable. The airline has already brought the Airbus A380 back against its will to fill in some of the capacity. However, it seems that this won't be enough, especially on routes that aren't filled to the brim.

Instead, Qatar Airways is looking for capacity elsewhere. According to the South China Morning Post, the Doha-based carrier will lease at least four Boeing 777s from Cathay Pacific, which owns around 10% of. ch-aviation.com data suggests that 15 of 17 Boeing 777-200s in the Cathay Pacific fleet are currently listed as inactive, along with 26 out of 46 Boeing 777-300ERs.

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The Hong Kong-based carrier has been hit hard by strict quarantine rules due to the pandemic and a drop in demand beforehand due to riots in the city. Late last month, it was revealed that Cathay Pacific, among other carriers, had also seen paint problems on its A350 fleet, though it hasn't explicitly grounded any aircraft due to this issue yet.

More aircraft needed?

It seems as though Qatar Airways will need more aircraft if it wishes to cover the entire capacity deficit created by its grounded Airbus A350s. This would likely extend beyond reactivated A380s A330s and leased jets from Cathay Pacific. Speaking to the SCMP, Al Baker revealed that Qatar Airways is looking for more aircraft in case the local regulator grounds further A350s.

Despite the legal threats made by Airbus last week, it seems as though Qatar Airways isn't backing down its Airbus A350 position, suggesting that the saga has severely damaged the relationship with Airbus.

The airline has a further 23 A350-1000 aircraft on order, but previously said it wouldn't take any more Airbus deliveries until the issue had been resolved to its satisfaction, something which Airbus claims the customer is dismissing "without legitimate justification." The airline had been tipped to order the A350F, but a Boeing 777X-F order appears almost certain now because of the issue between the two parties.

UPDATE: 11:15 17/12/2021 - Cathay Pacific clarified that it is returning these four aircraft to the lessor.

What do you make of the latest between Qatar Airways and Airbus? Let us know what you think and why in the comments!