By Tim Hepher

PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus dramatically raised the stakes in a dispute with Qatar Airways over floor injury to A350 jetliners on Thursday, accusing the Gulf provider of misrepresenting the issue as a security situation and calling for unbiased authorized recommendation.

Airbus has been locked in a row with one of many trade’s largest consumers for months over injury to color and an underlying layer of lightning safety, which Qatar Airways says has led to the grounding of 20 jets by its home aviation regulator.

In a uncommon assertion publicly airing the disaster in relations between the European planemaker and the launch buyer of its premier long-haul jet, Airbus mentioned the A350 jets exhibiting broken exteriors had been declared secure by European regulators.

“The try by this buyer to misrepresent this particular subject as an airworthiness situation represents a menace to the worldwide protocols on security issues,” it mentioned in a press release.

Airbus officers confirmed the assertion referred to Qatar Airways.

A spokesman for the airline mentioned it might not touch upon the Airbus assertion earlier than reviewing it.

The row widened final week when paperwork seen by Reuters revealed that a minimum of 5 different airways had complained about paint or different pores and skin flaws since late 2016. Delta Air Traces (NYSE:) joined the checklist of affected carriers this week, however to this point solely Qatar has seen jets being grounded .

“Now we have labored actively with Qatar Airways so as to minimise the impression of this in-service floor degradation on their plane,” Philippe Mhun, Airbus Govt Vice President Programmes & Providers, advised reporters.

Mhun mentioned Airbus had provided options to Qatar Airways from patches, to repairs of the anti-lightning materials or repainting of whole plane, however Qatar Airways had declined the provide.

Qatar Airways Chief Govt Akbar Al Baker has mentioned it’s not doable to guage the scenario till there’s a full breakdown of the foundation reason for the issue.