Dassault Aviation continues to invest in ramping up its customer support with more service centers and tools for Falcon operators and maintenance professionals. The company is preparing to open its new maintenance facility this fall in Bordeaux-Merignac, France to handle Falcon overhauls. The company broke ground last fall on the 7,200-square-meter (77,500-square-foot) facility, which will handle six Falcon 7Xs and/or 8Xs, and is anticipating a grand opening in November, said Olivier Villa, senior v-p civil aircraft for Dassault Aviation.
That company-owned and operated center is to come on line in addition to the growing authorized service center network, which now numbers 51 locations and has marked a 25 percent increase over the past four years.
The latest addition enhances Dassault’s service availability in Northern Europe. Helsinki-based Polar Aviation was approved as an authorized service center to provide line maintenance on Falcon 2000/2000EX/2000EX EASy, 900EX/900EX EASy and 7X. The center also will dispatch GoTeams for AOG (aircraft on ground) situations.
Polar Aviation’s facility includes a 3,500-sq-m (37,674-sq-ft) heated hangar with backshop capabilities that include battery service, wheels and other component work.
Dassault Aviation is also developing new web technologies to better serve Falcon customers. The company released Falcon Flight Doc for the iPad last year and has now developed a Falcon Maintenance Doc (FMD) app specifically for maintenance staff. The app, which works on iPads, provides a search tool, and can create bookmarks and notes, export documents and review several manual revisions at one time.
“The FMD app is a new step to have less paper involved in execution of maintenance, and it brings more flexibility to our operators during maintenance operations and the documentation process,” said Jacques Chauvet, senior v-p of worldwide customer service.
Available through the Apple Store, MFD is free for Falcon customers with a Field (Falcon Interactive Electronic Library Documentation) subscription.
While Villa said technology is important, he added that customer face-to-face involvement is important as well. The company has increased its “frontline” representatives by 25 percent over the past six years.
Spares availability has been another area of emphasis for the company, with efforts well underway to “right-size” pricing. With new regional centers and a worldwide inventory of $800 million in spares, customer satisfaction is approaching 99 percent, he said.
