Dassault Aviation keeps investing in business jets’ MRO. After the acquisition of TAG Aviations’ and ExecuJets’ maintenance organizations in March this year, the manufacturer just acquired RUAGs’ MRO activities in Genevra and Lugano. “RUAG has been a long-time partner of Dassault Aviation as an authorized Falcon service center. This acquisition will consolidate our network in Geneva and Lugano. Both Geneva and Lugano FBO activities will complement the full range of services offered by Dassault Aviation in Switzerland”, declared Eric Trappier, Chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation.

For TAG Aviation, specialized “in the Dassault and Bombardier product lines”, the acquisition only encompassed European MRO activities, including service centers, to reinforce the already existing network of Dassault Aviation.

ExecuJet brings a much more sizable network with a more relevant worldwide footprint. Especially with 3 service centers in Africa, 1 in Dubai, 1 in Kuala Lumpur and 4 in Australia / New Zealand. Regions in which Dassault Aviation does not have any service centers.

During an interview which occurred in the presentation of 2018 results, Eric Trappier was asked about other acquisitions. The answer to this question was: “Why not”. Hence, RUAG is the one involved. Dassault Aviation has been stepping up for some time now in fields such as the customer service or the MRO. The first step was to set the concept of a ‘Falcon Response’ for quick interventions from clients confronted to breakdowns. The ‘Falcon Response’ already counts two airplanes and 1395 flight hours accumulated during 191 missions and has received a positive feedback from the clients. To this business jet ambulance is added an industrial strategy which first step is to satisfy the clients by “[bringing] back Falcon aircraft maintenance in a company-owned network to control quality and to directly manage customer relationship over the entire maintenance life cycle of our aircraft”, fleshes out Dassault Aviation.

The second step of the industrial strategy is to expand “the share of Falcon maintenance activities controlled by the Dassault Group” but not only that. Indeed, TAG Aviation is also specialized in Bombardier product lines and ExecuJet “has gained confidence of clients operating a variety of aircraft types”. And the two steps strategy will be concretized with a worldwide service center network. The purpose being to maintain the MRO service provided to the Falcon fleet — of 2300 aircraft all around the world — and “remediate the risk that a competitor becomes the main maintenance contractor of our aircraft.”