SriLankan Airlines sues Airbus for $1bn

SriLankan Airlines has filed a lawsuit against Airbus for alleged corruption during the procurement of A350-900s and is seeking US$1b in damages and compensation, the cancellation of the outstanding order for four aircraft, and the return of US$19m in pre-delivery payments for these aircraft, DailyFT has reported. The lawsuit follows the Deferred Prosecution Agreement between the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the manufacturer announced in January 2020. Chairman Ashok Pathirage confirmed the airline had filed the lawsuit, although he did not elaborate in which jurisdiction it was done. SriLankan did not respond to ch-aviation's request for further details. The alleged corruption in Sri Lanka was one of five counts raised by the SFO during its investigation. According to the allegations summarised in the judgement approving the DPA, Airbus failed to prevent graft and bribery during the sale of its aircraft to SriLankan Airlines. <br/>