Airbus Prepares Handover Of Second A350 This Week

Airbus is preparing the second A350-900 for delivery to Qatar Airways later this week.

The airline got its first A350 in late December and started flying the daily Doha-Frankfurt route on Jan. 15. Qatar CEO Akbar Al Baker said at the Frankfurt ceremony last month that he expects to take delivery of the second aircraft within three weeks, but more than six weeks have passed since then. A Qatar Airways official said on Monday that the aircraft is “on schedule to begin on the Frankfurt route on March 1 as indicated earlier.”

Qatar Airways delayed acceptance of its first A350 in December by a week due to “supplier issues,” and in mid-2014 refused to take delivery of its first Airbus A380 for several months because it was not happy with the quality of some cabin interiors. It is unclear what caused the current slippage, and Airbus and Qatar are not revealing details of the progress in the delivery process and why the aircraft has not been handed over earlier. It is, however, highly unusual not to allow more than a few days between acceptance of the aircraft and first scheduled flight.

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