Dassault Falcon has aggressive plans to increase the number of its business jets operated in the Middle East region by a third over the next three years as it sees confidence begin to return to the market.
The French company has sold 14 aircraft in the Middle East in the past two years and has a backlog of 15 additional aircraft to be delivered to Middle Eastern buyers by 2013. Around 60 of its business jets are in operation in the region.
"The Middle East business environment still remains challenging but confidence levels appear to be rising," says John Rosanvallon, president and chief executive of Dassault Falcon. "Dassault has seen much greater demand over the last two quarters of the current financial year, with larger-cabin jet sales and prices holding up better than smaller jets."
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Around 40% of the company's new business jet sales are coming from the Falcon 7X and the company will deliver its tenth Falcon 7X to the Middle East before the end of 2010. Dassault has meanwhile established a regional sales office and has appointed a Dubai-based regional sales director, as well as a second authorised service centre and customer service manager in Saudi Arabia.
"Western economies are still struggling to recover, but other regions are active including India, South America, Asia and the Middle East, where we have an advantage because of our military heritage through the Dassault Mirage fighter jets that are operated in some GCC countries," says Rosanvallon.
Dassault's training partner CAE SimuFlite is due to open a Falcon training centre in Dubai in the second quarter of 2011.
Source: Flight Daily News