Qatar Airways releases video, hits back at Airbus in A350 paint dispute

The dispute has led to the grounding of 21 planes out of 53 A350s operated by Qatar Airways and cast a pall over the airline's preparations for the World Cup later this year.

Qatar Airways took a $4 million-a-day dispute with Europe's Airbus to social media on Friday, publishing a video of the scarred exterior of grounded A350 jets that the airline said underscored "serious and legitimate safety concerns." The two sides have been locked for months in a spiralling dispute over deterioration to paint and anti-lightning protection on the passenger jets, which Airbus has said is happening prematurely but does not represent any safety issue.

Qatar Airways hit back with the first official images of jets grounded by its regulator after Airbus accused the state airline of engineering the dispute to obtain compensation.

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