French aviation giant Dassault has a growing fleet of Falcon business jets in the Middle East. Its regional sales are set to grow by 30% over the next 3 years as demand for private aviation resumes and the regional market matures, remarked John Rosanvallon, President and CEO of Dassault Falcon.
Dassault Falcon will present its range of business jets at The Middle East Business Aviation (MEBA) show being organized by F&E Aerospace from December 7 to 9 in Dubai.
According to Rosanvallon, the Middle East market for business jets is beginning to show signs of recovery as confidence starts to return. 'Dassault's current regional fleet size is about 60 business jets and this is expected to grow by one third over the next three years,' he added.
Rosanvallon said about 40% of the company's new business jet sales were coming from the Falcon 7X. In fact, Dassault is set to deliver its 10th Falcon 7X to the region before the end of 2010.
Dassault has also expanded its presence and infrastructure with a new regional sales office and recently appointed a new Regional Sales Director, in Dubai, as well as a second authorized service center and a new customer service manager, in Saudi Arabia.
Dassault Falcon sold 14 aircraft in the Middle East in the last two years and has a backlog of 15 additional aircraft to be delivered to regional buyers by 2013, said Rosanvallon.
'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 and established reputation, through the Dassault Mirage fighter jets that are operated in some GCC countries,' Rosanvallon stated.
'Given this situation, we are very optimistic about the future, which is one of the reasons we are developing our own presence and adding new resources. CAE SimuFlite, our training provider partner, will, for example, open a brand new Falcon training center in Dubai in the second quarter of 2011,' he added.