All the outstanding Airbus A350-1000s for Qatar Airways have been removed from the airline’s backlog, according to the airframer’s latest official monthly figures. Qatar Airways had 42 A350-1000s on order of which 19 have been delivered. But a legal dispute over skin-paint deterioration on Qatar’s A350s led the airline to start refusing further deliveries, and Airbus responded by cancelling individual aircraft as each handover was blocked. Airbus had already gradually removed four of Qatar’s outstanding 23 aircraft, leaving 19 on the backlog. But the airframer’s activity for August shows that these 19 aircraft have also been cut, in a single sweep. Qatar had already completed deliveries of 34 A350-900s. The change means overall orders for the A350-1000 stand at 149 aircraft. August is typically a quiet month for Airbus and the company did not record any gross orders, which meant the net order for this year figure fell by 19 aircraft to 637. Airbus delivered 382 aircraft over the first eight months of 2022, including 36 A350s and 16 A330s, plus 298 A320neo-family jets and 30 A220s.<br/>
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Qantas has launched an investigation into how one of its planes was overloaded with freight on a flight from Sydney to Lord Howe Island, putting it over its allowable take-off weight. A Dash-8 aircraft flown by regional subsidiary QantasLink was carrying about 32 passengers on flight QF2262 from Sydney to Lord Howe Island on Wednesday morning, and was meant to carry no more than about 20 kilograms of freight. However, staff were shocked to discover that a larger amount of freight than expected had been loaded into the rear hold of the plane, resulting in it breaching its maximum take-off weight by about 160 kilograms when it departed Sydney Airport. Qantas confirmed that it was investigating how freight was “incorrectly loaded” onto the Dash-8, which has since been cleared to re-enter service. “The flight operated normally and landed safely and without incident,” it said, adding that the safety of the flight was not compromised. Mick Quinn, a former head of safety at Emirates and an ex-manager of air-safety investigation at Qantas, said overloading or incorrect loading of cargo in the wrong positions affects an aircraft’s centre of gravity and raised the risk of flight control difficulties.<br/>