Qatar Airways has abandoned plans to bring its first Airbus A380 to next week’s Farnborough Airshow.
The news follows an announcement in June that aircraft deliveries had been delayed after one of the airline’s inspection teams found deficiencies in the cabin.
A Qatar Airways spokesman on Wednesday would only confirm the aircraft would not be arriving in the UK for the airshow, referring to comments made in June by CEO Akbar Al Baker over the cabin issue.
Al Baker had said that arrival of the carrier’s first three A380s in Doha had been further delayed “as certain elements of the aircraft are being finalized to meet the high standards and expectations of Qatar Airways.” It had previously been due for delivery in March. As recently as May, Al Baker had said it planned to begin A380 services to London Heathrow June 17.
“The delays are … due to certain issues affecting the interior of the cabin which were identified during the airline’s standard aircraft delivery process, which includes rigorous inspections by its specialist technical team,” Al Baker said.
“As a result of the findings, the delivery schedule of the airline’s A380 aircraft has been impacted to allow Airbus to address Qatar Airways’ requests. It is completely normal for the inspection process of delivering a new aircraft to an airline to go through several rounds, and this is not an unusual case, though it will lead to an unfortunate delay of several weeks before Qatar Airways’ flagship aircraft will commence commercial service,” he said.
Recent press reports have talked of Aug. 1 as the new date for starting London services.
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