Abu Dhabi International Airport could see the launch of the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Boeing 777 passenger-to-freight (P2F) conversion facility by 2H 2023, Aviation International Online (AIN) quotes IAI Aviation Group VP and General Manager Shmuel Kuzi as saying. Conversion work at the site should kick off around “June or the beginning of July,” Kuzi said on the sidelines of Paris Air Show 2023..

The details: The company is set to establish “two conversion lines accommodating multiple aircraft conversions per year” at Abu Dhabi airport, according to the initial framework agreement. The facility will reportedly have the capacity to convert 100 Boeing aircraft, AIN writes, without clarifying the period of time over which these conversions will take place.

The center, for which agreements were signed in 2021, is slated to be the largest and most advanced in the Middle East, as per IAI statements cited by Reuters at the time of the agreement.The arrangement looks to benefit from a spike in demand for freight aircraft and is a “greener, more profitable highly innovative solution,” Etihad Engineering’s statement said.

Tens of orders for converted aircraft are already in the pipeline,Kuzi added. Emirates ordered four converted 777s in 2021 that will likely be converted at the new Abu Dhabi facility, according to AIN.

More conversion lines + more aircraft types coming? The number of conversion lines could be increased to three or more,depending on the readiness of facilities at Abu Dhabi airport, Kuzi told AIN. Expansions could also see other aircraft types being converted. “In about two years from now, we will start on the [Airbus] A330,” Kuzi is quoted as saying, while adding that they expect to receive approval to convert the A330 from the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel by 3Q 2023. “We are already working on the narrowbodies and will begin working on the widebodies which will likely lead to us opening more facilities,” he added, without clarifying which manufacturers those jets belong to.

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