Dassault Falcon has selected Brazil for its first manufacturer-owned service centre outside France and the USA.
At the Labace business aviation conference and exhibition earlier this month the manufacturer revealed plans to open a service centre at São Paulo Sorocaba airport. Dassault Falcon says the centre will be operational in the fourth quarter and offer line and light maintenance and stock spare parts for the entire product line.
Dassault Falcon now only owns three service centres, in Paris and the US states of Delaware and Arkansas, while the rest of the world is served by nearly 30 authorised centres. All of South America is now served by an authorised centre at São Paulo Congohonas airport, which will be replaced by the new facility being constructed at Sorocaba.
Dassault Falcon chief executive John Rosanvallon says fast growth in the Brazilian business aviation market persuaded the manufacturer to open its own facility in São Paulo even through other large growth markets such as Russia have much larger Falcon fleets. "We have about 20 Falcons based in Brazil and that number is expected to surpass 50 within the next four years, so a factory-owned service centre was of critical importance," Rosanvallon says.
He says Dassault Falcon has done particularly well in Brazil because its aircraft are ideal for the Brazilian market, which generally requires long-range aircraft as its cities are far from most of the world's major business centres. "In 1996 we set up our Brazilian operation and since that time the market has grown very pro-Falcon," Rosanvallon says.
"We have about 70% of the large-cabin market segment in Brazil. One factor driving this is increased international trade from Brazilian companies that now have a greater need to fly farther than before, which again complements our market segment."
Dassault Falcon claims it will have the second manufacturer-owned service centre in Brazil after Brazil-based Embraer.
Meanwhile, Mooney announced at Labace that it has appointed Jetsul as sales representative for Brazil. Following Labace, Mooney and Jetsul conducted a six-city demonstration tour of the new Mooney Acclaim Type S. Mooney has also appointed Aviones Mooney de Venezuela its sales representative for Venezuela, Panama, Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.
Also at Labace, Jet Aviation forged a partnership with Brazil's Tropic Air in which the two companies will work together to secure new aircraft management and charter business throughout Latin America.
Source: Flight International
