Originally Posted by
lederhosen
Mr Al Baker has been a difficult, some might just say demanding customer for as long as I can remember. He does it because it seems to work for him. In some ways he reminds me of O'Leary, outspoken but not always wrong. He is engaged in high stakes poker over an issue where he obviously feels aggrieved. Judging by the photos there is clearly a technical issue with the paint bonding. Over the lifetime of the aircraft it has the potential to be a very expensive issue. Airbus are almost certainly right that the wings are not going to fall off and that they think that they have a solution. The question is who pays, particularly for the consequences of Qatar's preemptive and highly expensive grounding. So far the manufacturers have tended to blink first. In the brave new world post covid I am not so sure. The only certain winners are the lawyers.
Mentioning AAB in the same breath as MOL is a serious insult to MOL. The latter has built a highly successful and profitable airline almost from scratch in a highly competitive environment, with no state support, facing up against some extremely powerful incumbents. The former writes checks.