LYON—As the building process for Dassault Falcon Jet's new maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in Melbourne, Florida, is progressing, the company is fine-tuning its expansion strategy in the U.S.
The move is part of a broader masterplan to tailor capacity growth to current and predicted demand.
Announced in October 2022, the MRO center at Melbourne Orlando International Airport will be able to accommodate 18 Falcons simultaneously for all levels of maintenance and modification. The 175,000-ft.2 complex will include a 54,000-ft.2 paint shop. Opening is planned for the first half of 2025.
“The factory-owned facility in Melbourne contributes to replace the capacity lost when our maintenance facility in Wilmington, Delaware, closed early in 2022,” says Geoff Chick, Dassault Falcon Jet, senior vice president, worldwide service network. “Moreover, we saw the fleet's demographics shifting more to the southeast, from the northeast. There are now almost as many Falcons in the southeast as in the northeast.”
In any case, the facility in Wilmington was not large enough for the Falcon 10X, slated to enter service in 2025, so Dassault's executives knew they would have to build something at some point, Chick adds.
In Florida, Dassault's network of company-owned facilities also includes a service center in Stuart. It can perform scheduled maintenance and respond to aircraft-on-ground situations. Compared to Melbourne, it is located further south and is closer to Fort Lauderdale and Miami, Chick says.
Dassault is now looking at increasing its presence in the U.S. northeast. In addition to the fleet based in that region, a large amount of transient traffic can be found there, such as aircraft flying to and from Europe. “Despite our existing presence in Teterboro, we intend to increase capacity in the region,” Chick says. “We will soon announce a partnership in the northeast for the line maintenance of in-production aircraft.”
Overall, demand in the U.S. is moving toward more factory-owned and authorized service centers, as business aircraft users seem to be gravitating toward the managed aircraft (Part 135) model, from the privately owned (Part 91) model. With Part 91, owners tend to do more of their own maintenance, Chick explains.
Parent company Dassault Aviation, via its Dassault Falcon Jet and Execujet subsidiaries, has 40 factory service locations and 20 authorized service centers around the world.
In Dubai, Execujet moved last May into its new facility at Al Maktoum International Airport. “Falcons account for 40% of Execujet's activity there,” says Jean Kayanakis, Dassault Aviation's senior vice president, worldwide Falcon customer service and service center network. “And they are ready to support the Falcon 6X, which has just been certified.”
In Kuala Lumpur, Execujet will move in a new facility by the second quarter of 2024. “It will serve the growing fleet in the region, such as in Indonesia and Vietnam,” Kayanakis says.
In India, an authorized service center has opened in New Delhi to serve the north of the country. It will soon be able to support the Falcon 6X, too, Kayanakis says.
“In Brazil, you can expect an announcement soon, as we plan to grow our capacity,” Chick adds.
Dassault's engineers have high expectations for the Falcon 6X. The new aircraft has an advanced digital diagnosis system. It will make maintenance operations more predictable, more cost efficient and faster, Kayanakis says.
Dassault's MRO network of factory-owned facilities is now proving its worth again, with the Falcon 7X. “We have just started the second cycle of heavy checks with the 7X,” Chick says. The earlier ones are coming to factory-owned centers for their 16-year check.
“The factory-owned centers have already completed a number of such checks and their access to company-wide resources for support is very beneficial,” Chick says.
“If a structural finding is discovered, it can quickly go to the design office for review. The feedback from these events can be analyzed and the maintenance program may be adapted. Additionally, the critical and quick support of the supply chain team and system specialists, for instance, helps keep these events on track,” says Chick. “It is a nice closed-loop scheme.”
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