Qatar Airways is ready to see its legal dispute with Airbus (AIR.PA) over flaws with the protective skin of A350 wide-body jets through to trial, the Gulf carrier said on Tuesday. Qatar Airways is suing the European planemaker in a UK court for $1 billion in damages after grounding about two dozen of its A350s experiencing the flaws, which it says raise safety concerns - something Airbus and European regulators deny. Until now, Qatar Airways has appeared broadly isolated in the dispute as other airlines continue to fly the jets, though the Gulf carrier has won some public encouragement from global airlines association IATA and rival Gulf carrier Emirates. A British judge last week rejected Qatar Airways' requests for a series of injunctions, clearing a path towards a full trial on the A350 surface problems and a related dispute over the planemaker's decision to revoke a contract for smaller jets. On Tuesday, the airline noted that a longer written version of the judge's decision reflected some arguments that it intends to make in the main trial, as it took the unusual step of reproducing lengthy extracts from the judgment. Summarising evidence in preliminary hearings, Judge David Waksman noted that the problem that originally appeared in one plane in late 2020 could potentially affect all A350s because of the choice of materials, for which there was no simple fix. Airbus has acknowledged that such issues tend to affect carbon composite aircraft but maintains it is not a safety issue. Qatar Airways says it cannot know for sure whether it is a safety problem until Airbus provides a fuller explanation. "Qatar Airways is ready to see this matter through to trial to ensure that its rights are protected and that Airbus is required to address an unprecedented and extremely unique and concerning defect impacting the A350 aircraft type, across the industry and multiple carriers," it said.<br/>
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The CE of Qatar Airways has defended a plan to operate more than 160 extra flights to shuttle spectators from the region to Doha and back each day, for what has been advertised as the first "carbon neutral" FIFA World Cup. Qatar Airways announced on Thursday it had partnered with regional carriers to allow World Cup ticket holders to fly into Doha and back from neighboring countries just for the day. Climate advocates say the decision flies in the face of the tournament's sustainability goals. "Please don't believe people saying only negative [things]," Akbar Al Baker said on Monday, adding that he was confident the flights would be full. "[We] have airplanes which have very low emissions compared to the normal aircraft most of the other airlines fly," including long-haul flights, he said. He did not elaborate on how the planes' emissions would be lower than others, but the airline's website says it uses "one of the youngest fleets in the sky" and has implemented 70 fuel optimization programs. Aviation is a major contributor to human-caused climate change. Qatar's economy is oil-based and has one of the biggest per capita carbon footprints in the world. Before Thursday's announcement, organizers had estimated a carbon footprint for the tournament of more than 3.6m metric tons of CO2, more than half of which will come from traveling supporters. The emissions from the new daily flights -- from Dubai, Muscat, Riyadh, Jeddah and Kuwait -- will add to the current estimate. FIFA said its previous carbon footprint estimate was published in February 2021 and that actual differences would be addressed once the tournament has concluded. Qatar has said it will offset the emissions by "investing in green projects" -- a common way for companies and people to cancel the impact of their footprint. Organizers have established a "Global Carbon Council" tasked with "identifying quality projects."<br/>
Qantas has hit back again at domestic rival Regional Express’ claims about the former’s “predatory actions” in the regional and domestic market, the latest in the two carriers’ neverending dogfight. The national carrier has debunked what it views as a series of “false claims” mounted by Rex, and called the smaller operator out for blaming its problems on Qantas. On 30 May, Rex announced it would axe five regional routes from its network – the second network cut in nearly a week – and hinted at “further adjustments” to the regional operating network. Rex said it made the cuts to the five cities - some of which have been served by Rex for over 20 years - because of Qantas’s “bullying and heartless behaviour”. Hours following the announcement, Qantas issued a strongly-worded statement responding to Rex’s allegations. It notes that of the five flights Rex was cutting, Qantas was only operating on two of them, with Rex being the only operator on the other routes. “This is just the latest example of Rex blaming Qantas and others for decisions that by its own admission it has made ‘to look after itself’”, the airline states. It adds: “Rex’s standard approach whenever it withdraws from a route is to blame others, usually Qantas.” On claims that its presence on regional routes drives out competition, Qantas says “the reality is” that its services “have been welcomed” by regional communities. <br/>