[1/2] Surface damage seen on Qatar Airways' airbus A350 parked at Qatar airways aircraft maintenance hangar in Doha, Qatar, June 20, 2022. REUTERS/Imad CreidiLONDON, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Airbus (AIR.PA) and Qatar Airways will resume a London court battle on Friday that thrusts their relations with regulators into the spotlight in a dispute over the safety of grounded A350 jets. Experts say it is the first time such a major international contractual and safety dispute in aviation, involving claims now approaching $2 billion, has ended up in open court. Airbus has told the court it would seek to show Qatar Airways "colluded" with the QCAA to have jets unnecessarily grounded to win compensation, a charge the airline denies. In a publicly available witness statement submitted to court in an October hearing, Qatar Airways cited what it called the "particular closeness" of ties between Airbus and its own regulator, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

---