Dassault Expanding Global Falcon Support with New Facilities

Dassault Aviation’s recent inauguration of a purpose-built 149,500-sq-ft (13,900-sq-m) maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, embodies the strategy the French aerospace company upholds for its business jet services unit. In short, that means developing a wider global aftermarket footprint with modernized and expanded facilities to support the growing fleet and product line-up of its Falcon family.

The acquisition of the global maintenance activities of Luxaviation's ExecuJet subsidiary and the European-based MRO activities of TAG Aviation five years ago cemented Dassault’s drive to command a worldwide Falcon maintenance network and bring support capability closer to customers, explained Jean Kayanakis, senior v-p of worldwide Falcon customer service and service center network at Dassault Aviation.

“A better management of the customer experience really is the number-one objective,” he told AIN in an interview ahead of EBACE. This customer-centric approach and commitment to offer one uniformly high standard of aftermarket support is “applied in all the regions,” he said.

The purchases added 17 factory-owned facilities, mainly in the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and Africa where Dassault previously had a relatively small footprint.

The 2019 acquisitions also built on the growing trend of OEMs to become de facto in-service support providers and earn more revenue through aftermarket services.

For instance, executives at rival Bombardier confirmed during an investors’ day on May 1 that it achieved a 77 percent increase in aftermarket revenues since 2020 and expects its services business to account for 22 percent of group revenues in 2025.  The Canadian company plans to reduce third-party MRO work on Bombardier business jets to 50 percent by 2030. The market share of its own worldwide customer service network increased from 36 percent in 2020 to 46 percent in 2023.

No such comparison could be made for Dassault Aviation because the company does not release separate financial figures for its civil and military aircraft service business. That said, Dassault Falcon now offers factory service at 40 locations. In addition to that, it has some 20 authorized service centers (ASC) worldwide.

“The objective is clearly not [for Dassault Aviation] to be the exclusive provider of Falcon support and MRO. We still have authorized service centers where they are needed as a complement,” said Kayanakis. Last year, for example, Dassault Aviation added a second authorized service center in India, located at Indira Ghandi International Airport in New Delhi and signed an agreement with Pro Star Aviation to provide line maintenance, installation, inspection, and aircraft on ground services for the Falcon 7X/8X and 2000EX EASy family in the Northeast U.S.

Meanwhile, an agreement with the existing authorized service center in Turkey has recently been renewed for three years.

While emphasizing the OEM will continue working with authorized service centers, Kayanakis admits the OEM prefers to keep MRO work in-house. “The commitment to provide a uniform customer experience is behind that and customers are requesting that they can benefit from our support know-how and suite of services,” he explained.

In the Americas, he is aiming for a 50 percent share of the Falcon aftermarket, and in the EMEA region that share has already been reached.

No Further Large Acquisitions Planned

Kayanakis does not foresee Dassault will make further large MRO acquisitions in the short term. “The market growth right now is not [high] enough to consider an acquisition, it's much better to develop what we've done,” he said, pointing out that acquiring a company is more than a financial transaction. “It is also making sure that the people start sharing our culture.”

Most of the investments will flow to modernizing and expanding existing factory-service facilities. This includes preparing them to accommodate the newest models such as the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW812D-powered Falcon 6X—which gained FAA and EASA certification in August—and the Rolls-Royce Pearl 10X-powered Falcon 10X, which is slated for service entry in 2027.

The ultra-long-range 10X will have a length of 33.4 m (109.6 feet), height of 8.4 m, and wing span of 33.6 m, and feature the widest and tallest cabin of any purpose-built business jet in service today. “There's a lot we are doing on the 10X already. Supporting an airplane as big as the 10X is a different game,” Kayanakis noted, confirming preparations are well underway. This includes ordering long-lead spares and commissioning bigger MRO buildings.

Dassault Falcon's Subang Airport facility, for instance, includes a 9,755-sq-m hangar that can accommodate up to 15 medium and large business jets simultaneously—including the 6X and 10X. Additionally, its 15,000-sq-m ExecuJet MRO facility at Dubai World Central Al Maktoum International Airport, which opened last year, was designed to handle new ultra-large-cabin Falcons.

Despite its smaller size—3,600-sq-m—the new company-owned São Paulo facility at the recently opened Catarina International Executive Airport will be able to accommodate the Falcon 10X. Similarly, Dassault Falcon's planned 12,000-sq-m facility in Melbourne, Florida, will service the newest Falcon models. This MRO facility is scheduled to open next year and will continue—like some other Dassault Aviation factory service centers—to provide line and base maintenance for other business jet aircraft types, not just Falcons.

One Service Standard, Different Brands

Over the past years, the entire Dassault Falcon MRO network has been gearing up to support the 6X. Ahead of the long-range twinjet’s entry into service, the OEM secured the availability of parts worth nearly $90 million across the world.

“I am not saying that everything is on the shelf today, but that is the inventory needed to support the first batch of airplanes,” Kayanakis revealed. Dassault’s 6X demonstration aircraft has been traveling the world since December and line maintenance has been provided throughout the different regions by Dassault’s network of factory service centers.

In addition, discussions with authorized line facilities are underway to fulfill the needs for the “several” 6Xs that are scheduled to be delivered this year, Kayanakis said. “Base maintenance is not going to be significant for a couple of years. The focus now really is to make sure we have the parts where they are needed and validate everything that has been done on paper [documented] to be ready to support the aircraft.”

Following the 2019 acquisitions, Dassault Aviation has reorganized its various MRO companies into a new sales organization, aiming to simplify customer access. It has also made some changes to the branding—TAG Maintenance Services was renamed Dassault Aviation Business Services and the Dassault Aircraft Services brand in the U.S. was retired last year in favor of adopting the Dassault Falcon Jet (DFJ) name.

However, the company has chosen not to consolidate its global Falcon support services under a single brand. “It was definitely something we considered and yes, it could have been different,” remarked Kayanakis.

“But we concluded that it's not just a matter of branding but also a reflection of market dynamics. Our priority is to ensure that customers, regardless of their location, can access a responsive and coordinated support network. Therefore, we opted to focus on optimizing the organization rather than rebranding.”