Qatar Airways is temporarily reactivating at least half of its 10 Airbus A380's, citing a capacity shortage which its links to the grounding of A350's as a result of premature surface degradation. The airline says it "reluctantly took the decision" to reintroduce the A380 because it faces "significant" capacity limitations following the grounding of 19 A350s earlier this year. Qatar Airways plans to deploy A380s on selected routes, including to London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle, from 15 December. One of the carrier's A380s was ferried from Doha International airport to Qatar Airways' nearby hub at Hamad International airport as part of the effort. The transfer represented the first A380 flight for Qatar Airways since the fleet was placed in storage in 2020, the airline notes. Chief executive Akbar Al Baker states that the A350 grounding "left us with no alternative but to temporarily bring some of our A380 fleet back on key winter routes. "This difficult decision reflects the gravity of the A350 issue and is intended to be a short-term measure to assist us in balancing our commercial needs. It does not signify a permanent reintroduction of our A380 fleet." He says the A350 surface degradation issue "remains an unresolved matter" between the airline and Airbus, and that "the root cause is yet to be understood". Al Baker has repeatedly raised the issue throughout this year. In August, Qatar Airways said it had been instructed by its national regulator to ground some of its A350s because of premature surface degradation. Finnair said that it noticed "some signs of paint deterioration" in its A350 fleet and worked with Airbus on resolving the issue. Airbus, for its part, says "some" A350s have been repainted because of the issue and returned to operation. "Each customer is unique and has its own livery requirements. We are working with our customers on a one-to-one basis," Airbus said last month. However, the airframer says root causes have been identified and that it provided operators with "additional guidelines" on aircraft stripping and painting. Qatar Airways has additionally reintroduced a number of A330's to create more capacity while travel restrictions are being eased, it says. Despite emphasising his airline's reluctance to reactivate A380s, Al Baker states: "One of Qatar Airways' greatest assets is our highly flexible fleet of diverse aircraft. This means we are not dependent on a specific aircraft type."

Air Lease chief executive John Plueger remains concerned by the ongoing Boeing 787 delivery "freeze" while disclosing that the lessor has cancelled orders for three of the type. Speaking during a third-quarter results call on 4 November, Plueger said the US lessor had originally been scheduled to take 10 new 787's by year-end but at this juncture was "uncertain" it would receive any. "In some cases, these aircraft are or will be more than 12 months late and, as such, we have cancelled three 787s," he says. "We are closely watching supply-chain constraints, especially as the OEMs ramp up production rates. It is no coincidence that both Boeing and Airbus increased commentary on supply-chain constraints in each of their third-quarter earnings calls". During the fourth quarter of 2020, Boeing identified manufacturing-related issues with 787 aircraft. As a result, deliveries were suspended between October 2020 and March 2021. Boeing temporarily resumed them in March but in May halted them again while the FAA completes an evaluation of the airframer's inspection process. Air Lease executive chairman Steven Udvar-Hazy describes the 787 situation as a "big question". He says Air Lease has not taken delivery of any of the widebodies since taking two in 787-9's in the second quarter, "not because we don't want to" but because Boeing cannot provide certificates of airworthiness. Udvar-Hazy says that if there is a recovery in 787 deliveries in 2022 the lessor could take as many as 12-15 units in 2022, representing a "catch-up" in the second and third quarters of next year. Air Lease's Airbus delivery schedule is meanwhile "pretty much on time", notes Plueger, although there are some minor delivery delays on a few single-aisles, which he says the European manufacturer attributes to Covid-19-related or supply-chain constraints. Udvar-Hazy says 737 Max deliveries are now "running fairly smoothly" and expects this will continue into 2022.

Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr has criticised Airbus's A320-family production ramp-up plan, calling on the airframer to instead seek a "sensible" level of production stability given the uncertainty on how airline markets will develop post-Covid. Spohr noted during a 3 November results briefing the concerns of aircraft lessors that a sharp rise in airframer output could lead to aircraft oversupply, while aerospace suppliers had highlighted bottlenecks in raising production volume. "I am certainly a great fan of Airbus aircraft," Spohr says. "But I must say too much capacity has always been harmful to this industry so far, be it regarding aircraft quality and delivery reliability or ultimately in terms of yields and utilisation." Noting air transport growth in China, Spohr acknowledges that Lufthansa's requirement for new single-aisle aircraft is not representative of demand Airbus sees in other regions. From a purely European perspective, he says, "there is no need for increased supply from aircraft manufacturers". In May, Airbus disclosed a plan to raise average monthly A320-family production from 40 to 45 units by year-end, and to reach 64 by the second quarter of 2023. The airframer said at the time that it was in talks with suppliers to enable 70 aircraft by the first quarter of 2024 and "investigating opportunities" to reach 75 by 2025. Spohr says: "For me it's important that [production] does not move from one extreme to the other because the supply chain has big problems with that." Citing delivery delays across a range of aircraft models and programmes in recent years – "hardly any come on time" – Spohr argues that aircraft manufacturers, suppliers, lessor and airlines should approach each other to jointly co-ordinate stable aircraft supply and demand. "As an industry, we would be well advised if we talked again with each other and not just via the public, and brought sensible production stability… in balance with global demand." He suggests that increased environmental pressure could interrupt the air travel growth seen over previous decades. "None of us knows yet how the sustainability debate will change travel behaviour over the next years."