Dassault Falcon (Booth 3634) continues to bolster its support and
services capabilities, opening new paint facilities at its world
completions center in Little Rock, Ark., and at Wilmington, Del.,
and enhancing its worldwide spares delivery system.
All Falcon aircraft are built in France and flown 'green' to Little
Rock for completion. The new 46,000-square-foot paint center there,
for which ground was broken in mid-2003, can accommodate three aircraft
at the same time. It cost some $8 million. The investment, says
Dassault Falcon president and CEO John Rosanvallon, "is in keeping
with the new process innovations coming with our new-generation
Falcon 7X."
Christian Sasso is the new general manager of the Little Rick completions
center.
Dassault Expanding in Paris Too
Dassault Falcon said at EBACE this past May that its is investing
"several million euros" to improve aircraft management and
flight operation services at its Le Bourget complex, outside
Paris. Work includes construction of a new, three-storey,
36,000-square-foot building for offices, including parking,
to replace an existing building; expansion of the aircraft
apron to accommodate up to 15 aircraft, up from the current
nine; and consolidation of all facilities for airline services
activities. Work is to be completed in mid-2005.
In July Dassault Falcon opened a 40,000-square-foot sister facility
in Wilmington, culminating a multi-year investment of some $30 million
in the overall Delaware service center.
Both of the new paint units are described as EPA Title V-approved
facilities specializing in high-solids and conventional aircraft
coatings, with sophisticated filtering and air circulation, and
glare-free lighting, to help ensure optimum results.
Painting activities at Little Rock, Rosanvallon says, are tied
primarily to completions, while Wilmington supports the aftermarket.
Also supporting the aftermarket is continued improvement of Dassault's
Falcon Spares service, the company says, "by improving long-term
planning, adding inventory, reviewing specific service level failures,
and working more closely with our major suppliers." Some prices
have been lowered too, and Dassault plans to institute a "Spares
Cares" satisfaction report feature on its website whereby customers
can lodge compliments—or compliments—with the promise
that the company will review and act on the customer input weekly.
