Super Midsize Next for Dassault Falcon?

High retail pricing will likely attract Dassault Falcon Jet to the super midsize sector when the company comes out with a new subsonic business jet, DFJ president John Rosanvallon and senior VP Jean-Francois Georges indicated here.

Considering that a Falcon 50EX costs almost as much to manufacture as a Falcon 900C, with the exception of the avionics differences, it's likely that DFJ will pursue the upper end of the super midsize market. The reason is that large-cabin business aircraft command proportionately higher retail prices.

New wing and engine technology, however, would make DFJ's next-generation business aircraft even more fuel-efficient. "We're investing a lot in technology improvements," Georges said.

But DFJ doesn't feel pressed to upgrade its product line just yet. As of October 15, the firm had booked 70 orders this year, Rosanvallon disclosed. "We hope to equal last year's record of 98 sales," he said.

The DFJ order book is split about 50-50 between the U.S. and other regions. With the exception of ultra-long-range business aircraft, Dassault Falcon Jet has as many large-cabin business aircraft orders as Bombardier and Gulfstream combined, Rosanvallon said.

"In some areas of the world, we have a 70-percent share," he said.

Equaling 1997's sales success may be a challenge, considering that some customers have asked Dassault to delay or reschedule aircraft deliveries because of "world economic turmoil," according to Rosanvallon. But he said he remains optimistic because of the inherit merits of the aircraft and the firm's relative strength in the markets in which it competes.

The business jet world, meanwhile, continues to eye DLJ's ongoing supersonic aircraft project, too.

By Fred George