Air France Industries is setting up a component logistics center at Abu Dhabi Airport. An inventory valued at “more than $10 million” will be available in January 2006 for the region’s Boeing 777s and Airbus A330/A340s, the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) subsidiary of the French airline announced here at the Dubai airshow yesterday.

Customers have been requesting some spare parts and components to be located closer to their bases, said Bruno Delile, the company’s senior vice president for industrial and business development. A $3 million inventory is already stored at some customers. The new logistics center will gather almost 2,000 part numbers.

The company currently serves 30 B777s and 10 A330/A340s under power-by-the-hour-type contracts in the region. Airline customers (not only for these contracts) include Saudi Arabian Airlines, Emirates, Etihad and Royal Jordanian, among others. Another customer is MRO service provider Gamco, from which Air France Industries will rent a warehouse for its new component logistics center.

The latter will provide reception and distribution of parts, local repair management and so-called fast shop services, using a $6 million ATEC test bench for avionics equipment. The operation will start with 10 employees. “The added value is in the monitoring of components,” Delile added.